These are my first sports sandals so, I'm no expert. I can just tell you that they have been on my feet as much as possible since they came out of the box for hiking, kayaking or eating strawberries! (inside joke). They are well designed, rock solid and the strap system is clever, the between the toe thing surprisingly for a sport sandal works for me.

For Kayaking these are no brainers, they grip well on wet surfaces and they are actually great for hiking! I went for a short 4 mile NE hike for a first test. The trail had all the standard features of a NE trail, wet roots, water, rocks with short 10+ deg up/down. I had my "nothing shoes" in the pack but to my surprise, they didn't come out. The sandals stayed down there the whole time and I adjusted the sandal straps maybe three times for this 1.5 hr almost fast hike.

Again, I know nothing on how to do this but I hiked three times with the sandals and it helps my foot placement technique, particularly coming down, its more like...easier!

The only negative, this will sound weird, your feet will get dirty when hiking

They are great sandals.