The Stingray Shuffle: Old Advice, New Risks

Southern California lifeguards say stingray stings are “the most common injury” they see. If you’ve ever seen someone hopping out of the water with a foot in agony, you’ve witnessed the infamous “stingray hop” — a painful reality for thousands of beachgoers each year. That’s where the “stingray shuffle” comes in — a simple, proactive move to help avoid stepping directly on a stingray. But is it enough?

Let’s dive into everything you need to know about the stingray shuffle — how to do it, its limitations, and why you need more than just the shuffle.

What Is the Stingray Shuffle?

The stingray shuffle is a method of walking through shallow ocean water by sliding your feet along the sandy bottom rather than picking them up and stepping down. The idea is that this protects you from stingray stings through two different methods:

1. If your foot gently brushes against a buried stingray, it will swim away instead of feeling threatened and lashing out with its venomous barb.
2. By running your foot along the sand, you make vibrations that the stingrays may swim away from, before you even touch them.

Stingrays are not aggressive creatures. In fact, they generally sting only when startled or stepped on. But they often lie buried just beneath the sand in shallow, calm waters, especially during warmer months, which unfortunately makes it easy to step on them. They then sting you with their barb, resulting in a painful injury.

Shuffling your feet gives stingrays a chance to detect your presence and move out of the way before you're directly over them. It’s a low-effort, potentially high-reward habit that every beachgoer should adopt.

How To Do the Stingray Shuffle

It’s simple:

1. Enter the water slowly and begin sliding your feet along the sand instead of lifting them.
2. Maintain light contact with the bottom, gently pushing the sand to the side as you move.
3. As long as you’re walking on the bottom of the sand, continue the shuffle. Stingrays are still present even in chest deep water.
4. Once you can comfortably remove your feet from the ground, do so – the safest feet are the ones that don’t touch the bottom at all

How Well Does It Work?

Here’s where things get murky. While lifeguards and experienced watermen have long advocated the shuffle, there’s surprisingly little scientific data to back up its effectiveness. Most of the support for the stingray shuffle is anecdotal — and while that doesn’t mean it’s not useful, it also doesn’t guarantee protection.

Some advocate for the “stingray stomp”, forcefully stepping on the ocean floor to make bigger vibrations on the ocean floor, and hopefully scare rays away. However, this method also has only anecdotal support, it risks injuring the stingray, and if you stomp on a ray you will almost certainly end up with a sting.

Why Shuffling Isn’t Enough

Even with diligent shuffling, stingray stings will happen. With more than 10,000 stings estimated in Southern California each summer alone, it’s clear that relying solely on the shuffle isn’t a foolproof strategy. And a sting isn’t something you just brush off. Stingray barbs are designed to penetrate the skin, delivering venom that causes excruciating pain, swelling, and sometimes long-term damage. In some cases, victims have needed surgery to remove embedded barb fragments or repair nerve damage.

Stingray Injury Treated with Foot in a Bucket of Hot Water – Photo Credit Brian Chernicky, How to Treat a Stingray Injury Reduce the Pain

That’s exactly why we created Dragonskin® Booties, purpose-built footwear designed to resist stingray barbs. In tests using real stingray barbs and a pendulum calibrated to recreate stingray stings, traditional neoprene booties failed to provide adequate protection. Dragonskin® Booties are made specifically to withstand that strike.

The stingray shuffle is a smart first step — and one we recommend to every beachgoer. But it’s not a guarantee. If you want real peace of mind in stingray-prone waters, protective gear like Dragonskin® Booties can make all the difference between a great beach day and a trip to the doctor.