Pier Safety Lecture

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today's Date: 5-06-2022

We got rained out of a walk today. Then mid morning something the OFM ate yesterday started a fight with his body that lasted most of the day. But we still managed to notice a safety trouble that lots of folks ignore.

But first, the sunken boat was gone from the beach by the time we got there around 0900.

Shortly after we parked the high winds were joined by light rains and we went back to the Castle.

Much later in the afternoon the winds had abated some and we went to the wooden pier just to get out and about and not far from a restroom. It was a pleasant time tossing a lure out at the end of the pier for a good while.

On the way out there the OFM tried to stand on the pier in the 20+ mph wind and handhold a telephoto shot of a couple of sea shells on the beach about ten feet below us. The wiggle factor was huge but the camera did a decent job of the challenge.

While we were going out on the wooden pier a group of four teens were coming off the pier. One lady in the group was having difficulty walking. The OFM checked to see if he could help them. It seems that they were all barefoot and she caught a nail head on the deck that was sticking up a good bit. The nail head went between her big toe and the toe next to it and ripped her “webbing” between the toes for a wound about an inch long but with decent bleeding helping flush the wound out. They went on their way down the beach to their vehicle.

The OFM has been fishing piers of all types all his life. By the time he was five years old he very well understood that any pier and especially wooden piers required shoes to be somewhat safe on them. All piers share some of the dangers of body damage but wooden piers in particular make nasty wounds.

ALWAYS wear shoes on a pier. Wooden piers have splinters, old fish hooks and other miscellaneous dropped items to give you nasty wounds on your feet. A splinter doesn't sound like a big deal until you remember all the bird droppings, fish pieces from cutting bait, general fish and other critters slime etc soaked into the wood waiting to give you something to infect your body quickly. We, nearly daily, see barefoot folks walking on the piers like nothing can hurt them.

Pier meandering can be a great way of trying to have tooooo much safe fun if you are a bit careful on the pier.