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beginner's guide to vibram five fingers

Jawa's Vibram Vacation

By Justin Owings on Jan 26, 2010 | In User Stories | Leave a comment »

Jawa runs on Negril Beach in Jamaica in his Sprint Vibram Five Fingers.  Looks like a beautiful place for a sandy run!
Jawa runs on Negril Beach in Jamaica in his Sprint Vibram Five Fingers. Looks like a beautiful place for a sandy run!

Be sure to check the photos linked below in Jawa's narrative below!

I am sure Vibram Five Fingers have been subjected to various conditions and your website serves as a single, authentic source where real people share their success with Vibram. As you may know I have been using Vibram since September 2009 and recently ran my first half marathon.

This winter break, I decided to go with my Vibram to Jamaica for a two week family vacation. In Jamaica we were very active: I ran on the streets of Montego Bay, climbed Dunn’s Rivera Falls, zipped through the longest (1600 feet long) zipline in Caribbean, jumped from a cliff, swung from a rope over YS falls, ran on the beaches of Negril, snorkeled, scuba dove and much more – all with my Vibram. This was truly a Vibram Vacation.

I wore my brand new taupe-clay sprint for this trip. The first day in Montego Bay, we decided to go to the famous Doctor’s Cave Beach. After snorkeling for about an hour, I was simply floating and relaxing.

Next day we went to the famous Dunn’s River Falls – from where the river merges with the ocean, we trekked upstream about 600 feet (See photo here).

Interestingly they were selling water shoes for $15 and many people asked me where I bought my Gorilla water shoes. We also visited the longest zipline in the Caribbean at Lethe Estate. It has 5 ziplines, varying in length from 250 feet to the amazing 1,600 feet (Here I am flying).

My favorite part of the vacation was in Negril, a small town an hour drive from Montego Bay. Negril claims to have 7-mile long sandy beach. I ran through this beach three times and I can attest it is only 4.5 miles (See photo at the top of the post). In Negril I ran through the Hedonism resort (nude beach), and the best part is that all the eyes were on me (my Vibram) as I ran at a steady, 9 minute/mile pace. I also ran through the main road which was treacherous for about 4 miles. There was no side walk but plenty of broken glasses, pebbles, sharp rocks, discarded furniture, two dead dogs and all kinds of trash. I was still was able to complete a 10+ mile run through the beaches and streets of Negril. Check out my Negril Run Garmin stats.

All my family members are PADI Certified scuba divers and we went for six dives. Of course, I went to dive with Vibram. Since Vibram feels like a glove for the foot, I was able to fit into diving fins (see here) easily. My daughter took this next picture when I was 75-feet under water.

Some additional pictures:

  • No problem standing or resting on sharp, coral (dead) rocks – see pictures here and here
  • Jumping from the cliff
  • Swinging from a rope in YS Falls
  • Vibram on the beach
  • In Monetgo Bay with the family

I couldn’t resist doing a headstand in the black river area on the south coast of Jamaica on this beautiful road. This is a single lane road with traffic on both sides so I have to do it quick (see here [getting ready] and here [headstand!])

Thanks
Jawa

Dr. Jawa is quite the pioneer for VFFs! Teaching in his black KSOs, racing in his blue camo KSOs, and cooling down with yoga moves in them, too — now he's taken Jamaica by storm!

Incidentally, I too have climbed Dunn's River Falls in my VFFs (Beware my blinding paleness!) — KSOs in my case back in May. They worked like a charm.

As a great number of us are dealing with a frustratingly cold winter, seeing Jawa have such a blast in a more temperate climate induces a mixture of excitement ... and jealousy! I just keep telling myself that Spring is just around the corner!

Thanks Jawa!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 754 articles and 302 comments.
Tags: climbing, running, sprint, travel, water sports

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Note: This site is not owned, operated, or otherwise affiliated with Vibram or Vibram FiveFingers. The site is intended for entertainment purposes only. Per FTC regulation, it should be assumed that products reviewed on BirthdayShoes were provided to the blogger(s) for free or at discounted cost. Though this is certainly not always the case, we'd rather be in compliance with FTC rules & regulations governing bloggers and product reviews under the assumed "most biased" letter of the law. That said, if it's not immediately obvious, this site is a fan site for minimalist footwear such as Vibram Five Fingers, which is to say that there is a stated bias in favor of these products. Despite our stated bias, between the hundreds of user-submitted stories, the thousands of forum posts (both positive and negative, warts and all!), and the in-depth resources and guides, we do our best to provide in depth information on all products reviewed. In the end, though we strive to be a helpful resource and believe in integrity and honesty, we expect you to do your part — reading the research and making educated decisions (Read: take responsibility for your actions!). We have also passed on reviewing products (not VFFs per se) that were provided to us for free but did not "cut the mustard." If you have any questions about this disclaimer, please contact us!

©2012 by Justin Owings

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