From years of diving and fishing the salt I find the following to be true: Wear footware! Way too many pointy, sharp, cutting things abound in the salt environs. For years our diving footwear was the old cloth style real tennis shoes(fit in strap fins nicely) but these do little to provide safety against the urchins, and coral, found in many areas or worse yet the sting ray. A bit of kevlar ankle, top of foot, guard is best for that or do what a buddy of mine did for his flats fishing. He gets a cheap pair of the high top, leather/cordura, lugged, hiking boots sold at K-mart or Wally World and when the wear out in 6 months or so--he discards and gets another pair. Buying on sale they'll set you back a cool $20 a pair. Other than that Shimanao boots when you can find them, on Ebay, are as well made as are the Orvis or Simms and go for a lot less or again in that $20 range.