I've seen Les try to fish using a torch at night, but I do not remember the episode.

When wading in shallow water through which you can see the bottom, it can be better than at night, after all, you can see. However, night or day should not matter much when the water conditions do not allow you to see the bottom. I've been in the water a lot in my life. On very few occasions did I ever wear anything on my feet, but my ventures are mostly U.S. East Coast.

The danger footwear avoids is if you step on something that can inject you with something. That danger seems slight in the areas I've been. I know stingrays exists, but I've only seen one near Sydney, Austrailia, which swam a few feet under me and my surf board. The danger I remember fearing when I was a kid on the DelMarVa shore was a pinch from a crab claw.

Walking around in the water without a good view of the bottom in many parts of the world could be bad for you. I would not do it at night unless there was something on land that was dangerous and chasing me.


Ask Steve Erwin about stepping on things in the water, oh wait, you can’t.

Les mentions sting rays in at least one episode. I believe in the Amazon Jungle ep. when he's noodling for catfish he mentions that Stingrays like to hide in the same places and how the natives fear the sting more than any snake bite.

He fishes with the torch during the episode when he's on the tropical island in Costa Rica playing the stranded scuba diver...I believe (I've seen them all so many times you think I'd rememeber but they all sort of run together after a while).

I think the biggest danger from wading in the ocean at night, especially barefoot, would be falling on coral and suffering a pretty big gash. sharks and other animals are a distant (but not impossible) second. i learned to be very methodical in a survival situation, and avoid unnecessary risks. suffering a major injury in a survival situation could truly be the end of the road. (this is what makes bear's show seem so counterproductive to me)

i do agree with benjammin and hikin_jim that Les does put himself in situations we could all wind up in, and he does come out alive with less gear than most of have in our pockets right now. i guess there is the entertainment aspect of the show so his mistakes are kept in the final footage. i guess i'll just try not to make the same mistakes he does.

I like survivorman mainly just for entertainment, but he does have some handy tips. I prefer Ray Mears, because the shows main focus is survival skills and talks about how some real life survival situations went wrong or what a person did right.

I dont live in a tropical region so I will admit that I dont know more than what I have read on this but...... If you step on a stingray, shoes or not I was led to believe that the barb was long enough to hit you in the ankle or shin, over your shoes. Even if it hits you where your feet are covered the barb would most likely still penetrate. Maybe I am wrong on this.

If I had shoes I would wear them regardless if out in the surf. Christ knows what else is there besides a stingray. Or I would stick to eating coconuts from the beach. As far as I know they wont sting or bite.

BTW. I watched that episode a few days ago on OLN and as far as I could tell he was wearing his neoprene dive booties every time he stepped in the water, even at night while torch fishing.

I don’t remember what network it was on (Discovery channel?) but did any of you see the show on the box-jellyfish in Australia? It’s this little, clear jellyfish that is small & very hard to see, the size of a thumb and only 1-inch long. It’s so small it slips through all the jellyfish nets on the beaches. People were getting hit with these things and for a while the authorities had no idea what was killing people. It’s a very dangerous little thing, the show said its poison is 100-times as strong as some snake poison. Right now I guess they have no anti-venom for it.

It was an interesting show.

It would keep me at the pool and not at the beach if I were to go to Australia.

If I seem to be diverting the topic, I apologise but I was wondering.

If you step on a stone fish with typical water/beach shoes will the horns penetrate or will you simply crush the fish?

Around the Canadian coast where I grew up we have fish called sculpins which have horns similar to stone fish. they can be quite small to the length of a forearm from finger tip to elbow in most places though. http://en.wikipedia.org If stepped on they are super painfull and will lay you up for a while but I have never heard of them being fatal. In fact, I have never heard of anyone stepping on one either. They dwell in the rocks and are quite large so they are easy to avoid. Really fun to catch as well. but the horns are super sharp and if you did step on one it most likely would go through the bottom of all but the toughest bottomed shoes.

Pantyhose? If the jellyfish didn't kill you, you'd die of embarassment.

Look up "Irukandji". I don't know if I saw the same show as you're talking about, but these things are tiny, invisible buggers. Despite trying to cover every piece of exposed flesh, those two Irukandji researchers both got stung on a dive together and were in full-body agony. Luckily they got out of the water before they were incapacitated with pain. They said that even max doses of morphine only took the edge off the pain. The woman was in severe pain for weeks IIRC.