Thanks for the suggestion, Mike. I was wearing neoprene water shoes (the
river bottom where I paddle has many very sharp zebra mussle shells). The
heel cup on those are about equal to my sneakers, so I think maybe the way
to go is to try out your suggestion of the closed cell foam.

I haven't had any pain problems with shorter paddles, so maybe the problem
is that I kept the feet locked into position for too long without relieving
pressure on the heels. However, I am curious what adjustments the
experienced paddlers make when they are doing paddles of 5 to 8 hours at a
time.

"Michael Daly" wrote in message
...

On 1-Aug-2005, "PG" wrote:

What's the problem -
the fit, my foot positioning, or something else?

What are you wearing on your feet? If you're barefoot, you may
want to get some closed-cell foam on the bottom of the kayak.
An old sleeping pad can be cut to size.

If your footwear is the problem, get something else. Something
with a decent heel cup and a bit of paddling should be fine.

I find almost any paddling footwear works fine. Reef boots (aka
dive booties or neoprene boots), paddling shoes (like a light running
shoe with mesh sides) or closed sandles with a heel cup work for me.

Mike