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

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.?

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_spe...ri=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. 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?

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.

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

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

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!!!

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.

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...