Category: Students

While walking on the beach, I couldn’t help but notice I was becoming exhausted very quickly. It is more difficult to keep stability on deep sand than it is on solid ground, and requires more energy as well. You have to lift your foot vertically out of the sand as well which requires knee bending that many people may not be capable of doing comfortably or without pain.

Farther from the beach, on the sidewalk adjacent to the road, I saw someone using a walking cane and realized that it must be pretty difficult to use a cane on a sandy beach. The lack of a solid surface to plant the cane on for stability seems like it would clearly pose some issues. It is unfortunate that there aren’t many solid walking paths within the sandy area. However, I think it might be possible to adapt the traditional walking cane to be better built for sandy terrain.

The issue might be addressed by creating a larger surface area that would come in contact with the ground. I modeled the new cane after ski poles – for deep powder you typically want to use a similar style basket a the tips of your ski poles, the increased surface area helps with stability so your poles can compact the snow instead of sinking.