I didn't buy these for using in the water. After looking over (and trying/returning a few pairs of) really expensive $100+ 'minimalist' or 'barefoot running' shoes, I decided to see if there was anything decent for minimalist purposes in Amazon's selection of water shoes. Looking over several options, their benefits/drawbacks, and their reviews, these shoes seemed like the best option.

Related to the pictures and description, these water shoes are a little cheaper-quality than they look in the picture.

There is no flashy clear sole. The sole is plain blue rubber, complete with little pieces of 'rubber flange' from when the molded parts weren't totally cleaned of flak. The soles are fairly thin and, with the insole (glued in), are just a tad thicker than the soles of Vibram Five-fingers. Still very flexible--still lots of ground feel (not as much as Vibrams). I wore the Cudas, with socks, for eight hours or so today, working (walking) on foot for about three hours, and could feel very clearly pebbles, gravel, sticks, grass, dirt clods, and walking over ground full of fallen crab apples (fun). I'm not sure about the strength of the soles, however. I'm tentatively waiting on having a thorn or something puncture the bottoms and pierce my foot. taking the shoes off after a full day showed wear on the sole, so I don't know how long these are going to last as minimalist shoes.

The toe-bumper on the front of the shoe fits me a little oddly, but only looks a little funny to me--still works fine. This is because the shoes are designed to look slender, and the toe-bumper only fits over my biggest four toes (too skinny), leaving my little toe in the toe box behind its outer end. The toe-box is stretchy and non-binding (I have 4e-wide feet--a painful problem with expensive minimalist shoes), made seemingly of neoprene. I can feel the width of my feet spreading over the sole and spilling (through the stretchy sides) ever-so-slightly over the edge of the sole, but it's not hurting me.

I do wish the heel-section was a little taller, and grabbed more heel. These feel more like moccasins, and I feel like the heel might flop off if I give them a good run. Being made of neoprene or something, they aren't very breathable, and your feet will be warm and sweaty, but that's alleviated a bit with socks.

These are cheap, decent quality, and offer very good ground-feel for minimalist footwear purposes. They look pretty cool, I guess, and they're comfortable like slippers. Durability, especially of the sole, remains to be seen. Oh, and my footfalls working today were totally silent. Ninja slippers.

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Update.

I hardly wear these, because of the fact that they fit weird (long and narrow), and because the sole is so cheap, I don't want to disintegrate it too quickly. I guess if I could go back, I wouldn't have bought these, or I would have returned them after wearing them once. BUT ... after wearing them once for several hours, the soles were scuffed up and worn enough that I couldn't have returned them.

Maybe not so good for minimalist footwear. Probably good pool shoes, though. And I probably wouldn't wear these in the ocean--an urchin or a piece of debris would probably punch right through the bottom.