He wrote: " Thanks Hal. (...) let me share my opinion on the new clips compared to the old ones. There is one thing i liked more in the old ones. When you let the models walk on gravel you used to let them walk some distances that they had the chance to get used to the gravel or even had them walk the whole clip on gravel like the classic "zoe on the gravel slope" video. In the new videos you just let them walk a bit and cut away soon. I attached some pictures as examples of the videos I mean."
Below, I re-attach the images he attached.
It's a very much interesting post, IMHO.
I have bought through the years ANY clip the great Hal published about outdoor barefooting
, and I enjoyed making a review of ANY of them, for my personal use and amusement, putting them in a rank, a chart, under the strict aspect of the CAPABILITY TO STAY BAREFOOT ON HARD SURFACES (of the model in the clip, obviously).So I well know the three clips represented in iiyamaxx picture.
Therefore, here it is my curiosity.
In the three clips mentioned, the models got badly shaken by the terrain, and by the fact of insisting on it despite not being tough enough to walk there without feeling a lot of pain.
Curiously, the one that iiyamaxx specifically mentioned is maybe the worst case: Zoe got... severely destroyed, and ended with trembling legs, paralyzed, unable to move a single step further.
(But the other two models ended with only enough strengths to TRY HIDING the troubles they were in. Mainly Sheila, who insisted a lot visibly surprised to be so unexpetedly challenged, as her feet tell a REAL barefooter's story... she probably not admitted being totally drained to Hal himself.)
Let's be clear: they're GREAT BAREFOOTING CLIPS!!!, high-level material, as any clip from Hal.
Indeed, I recommend any of you to buy them. There's REAL BAREFOOTING, in a very difficult environment.
But recently, as iiyamaxx wrote, Hal's models are using to deal with that TERRIBLE terrain in a different manner: not taking themselves to the limit, not completely ending strengths insisting despite pain. But rather taking pauses, avoiding sharp stones for several seconds after having been hardly touched by very difficult passages, and so on.
So this is the question: WHICH SITUATION ANYONE OF US PREFERS?
1) The "first T.I.A. era"
: a model that, despite realizing the terrain is too hard for her soles, reacts exactly as she had shoes: not preserving herself at all. And ending, obviously, in EVIDENT PAIN AN TROUBLE.2) The... "second": a model that preserves strengths regulating them, carefully RECOVERING, any time she's touched too hard, and doing this in several manners, more or less evident: simply avoiding sharp stones for some steps, or STOPPING AND RESTING if it's not possible to do whatever.
I know my personal answer: BOTH.
But it's not an acceptable answer.
I mean: what I like is an extreme barefooter able to walk ANYWHERE WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM.
But the great Hal itself has maybe ONLY ONE GIRL whose bare feet toughness is beyond those stones: ELSA.
For the other models, goin' barefoot over there is PAINFUL, and so, sooner or later, feeling pain at any step makes strenghts blow over. It's only a matter of time, before a naked foot can't be posed without trembling, or can't be posed at all, if that bare foot feels pain any time she's posed. Obvious.
Having to choose, I prefer the FIRST situation: a barefooter that does not "cheat" (or "preserve strengths", as you prefer and feel) but insists BAREFOOT AS IF SHE WAS SHOD.
Until she has no more, if, sadly, the terrain is too much for her soles.
I guess for example that Feetosopher is on the opposite side: he hates seeing a barefooter in trouble. Better if she not over-challenges herself, if I correctly read his tastes.
What do you prefer? ... ELSA APART?
A barefooter in visible troubles because she doesn't make any compromise while walking?
Or a barefooter not showing any difficulty, because... "cheating" or if you prefer "rationing her strengths"?
F.
- I am surely THE ONLY GUY HERE (except Hal, of course) who had the privilege of enjoying the memorable ELSA vs. NORA race on gravel LIVE.. plus I admired other gorgeous TIA models testing their soles in that location, right before my eyes: Heike, Janina, Paloma, Sheila, Lo..
)