Got an itch from riding?

[Skyway Scott]

This might be the cause.

http://www.fau.edu/safe/sea-lice.html

I noticed alot of guys getting this lately. It didn't seem to affect me, but maybe this is the culprit.

[toby wilson]

No, I think they are sea sponges. It is more a burning along any part of the body that touches the bottom of the ocean and although the burning is INTENSE during that evening, it always clears up by morning. Kind of strange but definitely not sea lice...

It appears that sea lice float and what we were experiencing only occurred after skin made contact with the mud at the skyway and at east beach. It also did not cause a rash like the one in the picture but rather just a redness of the skin for a few hours...

http://www.nativeplanet.org/health/dangeroussealife.htm

[bryanleighty]

Here's a good one for ya..

Last year my friend Dan and I were out on his 22ft sailboat just outside of Boca Ciega Bay... We anchored up, grabbed some plastick scrapers and jumped overboard to do some quick clean up on the waterline of the boat. He was in a spring suit, i was just in shorts. Things were going good but the number of boats speeding in the nearby channel were making it very difficult to work so we decided to just quickly finish up and call it a day. I got onboard and saw that I had a small amount of sea critters attached to my shorts.. nothing too bad. I dont know if they were sea lice, but they were almost too small to see with and had little legs on them. It was pretty damn gross.

I changed to clean clothes and Dan was just climbing back on board. He had been in the water for about 5 min more than me and was covered in dirt and muck. He was getting ready to change out of his sprink suit when he noticed that the dirt was not dirt, but instead, mounds and mounds of the little sea critters... probably about 2 inch thick and covering about 50% of his entire suit. It was perhaps the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. He freaked (as would anyone) and jumped overboard to clean his suit.

We dont scrape the boat like that anymore.

[toby wilson]

:shock:

Sounds NASTY!!! At least the things at EB and SW don't cling to ya!!!! 8)

[bryanleighty]

We've had some clingy circular critters attached to our booties and lower legs of our wetsuits out at the SW. I was in the habit of taking a breather out at the shallows on long SW sessions.. would just roll up and sit down for a few minutes..

no more.

i go to the beach to rest or only go to the pure sand shallows..

[toby wilson]

Good idea!!! Since I am still doing the walk of shame my fair share, I have that same issue but have not noticed the stickies...Guess I won't chance it!!! The reason I keep getting stung so bad is because I can't get my jibe down and keep eating it about 50% of the time I try...I also tried a small jump and PAID for it last week!!!

[bryanleighty]

We need to rally a group together and get our asses over to the Water Complex in Orlando for some board-skill sessions.

[toby wilson]

I'll DEFINITELY second that but I also do have the boat if anyone is interested in wakeboarding during these windless weekends...

[bryanleighty]

sign me up for some wakeboarding!!!

[Skyway Scott]

Hmmm..

No idea what it is. I have spent literally thousands of hours in the waters of Tampa and along Florida (as required of my past job) and just fishing/wakeboarding/riding as so forth. I have never had an encounter with anything of any real consequence or a rash or anything over all the years. So, I don't know what you guys are getting into out there, but some were complaining of rashes I heard. Weird stuff. It's probably skyway stench/runoff disease :shock: Do our local sponges cause rashes?

[inferno]

thats because unlike most of us, scott spends more time above the water and in the air; then in the water :lol:

[BigR]

There are a variety of little sea creatures which are the culprits not just one. In Miami, I have encountered bona fide sea lice as well as man o war/ stinging jelly fish. over on this coast I believe itis some other organisms, as yet unidentified, which causes these symptoms. The little crawlies sound disgusting but prolly not a rash inducer? maybe newly hatched sea crabs from a huge nest?

a certain anenomea sp.? gave me rashies the other day in the skyway shallows. I think its name starts with cyla.... sp.?

[Skyway Scott]

Here is an article on sponges. In the middle it says how they can "get you".
I guess I am just lucky that my skin is "over it" and doesn't respond to the stuff. The rashes looked nasty on Toby and others.

http://www.allthesea.com/Sea-Sponge.html

BigR. That might be cassiopea?, my favorite jelly fish. They are found ALOT in the shallow more stagnant waters of the keys and sometimes here. That's one thing that will cause a minor stinging that goes away pretty soon. I forgot about getting stung by them. Its more of a minor nuisance, right?
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/default.asp?hOri=1&inhab=452

The more I think about it, I got stung by something awful once in the Keys as a teenager. I picked it up on purpose/stupidity. Its called a fireworm. Holy crap, man.... 4 hours of pure fire on my hand. Its was extremely painful. Besides that tho, nothing to write about :?

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=292 :shock: :shock: :oops:
do NOT stick this in your buddy's shorts as a joke!!

[BigR]

BigR. That might be cassiopea?, my favorite jelly fish. They are found ALOT in the shallow more stagnant waters of the keys and sometimes here. That's one thing that will cause a minor stinging that goes away pretty soon. I forgot about getting stung by them. Its more of a minor nuisance, right?


Thats exactly what I was thinking of, Paul , Alex and I saw a huge herd of these in the shallows behind the mangroves in PR. I've also seen them in the keys but not here much.

Scott, sounds like you're interested in environmental engineering stuff again?

[toby wilson]

After reading about those fireworms, they seem like the feeling that whatever it is gives off. My skin would get red and irritated for about 4-7 hours after the initial contact and would subside around the time I went to bed, around eleven or midnight.

[BigR]

ever get stung by a man o war? burns worse than the worst burn possible for a few days, chronic pain that just makes U miserable

[Skyway Scott]

I just now got done with "work" 8)
Toby.. these fireworms hurt BAD man.. you wouldn't still be riding if you had that much area stung, trust me. If you want, lets go to the Keys and rub one on your leg :shock: This will provide us with the data we need to make our comparative pain analysis :? to determine if the fireworm hurts like a bitch.

I am obviously just being a smarty.. long story short.. it hurts more than most things I have felt, with exception of getting skunked, sucked out on the river, or dropping my Wendy's number 8 out the window on the drive thru "hand off"

BigR, I have been lucky and avoided the floating zip locks with pain inflicters.
Also, I have always loved the sea critters, but they don't pay too well. :x

[toby wilson]

Well, I've seen you TRY and ride after being 'skunked' Mr. Skyway Scott!!!

And I can tell you what hurts most of all...showing up yesterday after driving from St. Pete over the bridge to Cypress when you live in Palmetto just to get some good riding in, pull out your favorite kite, the 20.5 M Machine, pump it up, hook up your lines, walk your board down from the grassy area to the beach and when you get back, you find that your damn leading edge blew out!!! So you spend another half hour packing the Machine back up, getting out your next biggest kite which just happens to be a 15M Fuel and having to work the HELL out of the kite all afternoon underpowered in heavy chop rather than cruising over it powered up with my trusty Machine...

One call fixed all that though. Slingshot rules! I have a new bladder being shipped out this morning!!! Thanks Neil and Slingy!!! I couldn't ask for better customer service!!!

[Skyway Scott]

Yeah,

That sucks. Good luck installing the new bladder. Sometimes it can be a pain, especially single handed, so don't even try without a helper.

[toby wilson]

Yeah, will do. Steve lives at my place so I am sure he will be more than willing to help. I have to open the wingtip up today and check to see if it blew out at the end and if so, just try my best to patch it up for now...

[BigR]

If it blew out the end that means that it wasn't installed correctly, i.e. , it had an air void which allowed the "bubble to burst"

Make sure on reinstallation that there is no empty space at the tips

[toby wilson]

Yeah, I called Neil Hutchinson last night and he said the same thing. Or that maybe it was the unprobable 1 in 100 that is bad and just blows on its own... I tend to bet that the original installation job was done poorly though...