just got these in the mail used them only once on a little creek sloshing trip 
anyone else use them? what are your thoughts on them?
I have used the Five Ten Savants for two seasons of packrafting/backpacking. The last is extremely comfortable if you have medium to wide feet, as I do. The traction is great on all surfaces. I did sole friction testing of many water shoe types on both dry and wet surfaces before I selected this shoe for packrafting in combination with a lot of fly fishing related wading. On wet surfaces the Five Ten S1 rubber had more friction than the other half dozen water shoes I tested.
The Savant’s toe bumper has a notch in it near the end of both sides to facilitate forefoot flex. It is just above this notch where the mesh gets the most stress and it first starts to wear. A light coating of McNett Seam Seal over the small mesh panel restored the function of my two year old Savants. I also bought a new pair of Savants to have on hand as a spare. In advance I coated the mesh at the same stress points.
This year Five Ten came out with a lighter shoe that uses the same rubber; it is called the Runamuck. There is a 6.4 oz total weight difference between the Savants and Runamucks in size 11.5 medium width shoes. The weight difference is primarily in the Savant’s extra heel pocket reinforcement. As a result of the beefy heel pocket, the Savant’s have more lateral stability than the Runamucks do. For trips that involve low to moderate walking distances relative to boating/fly fish wading distances, the Savant is the better choice. As the walking component goes up, the lighter weight of the Runamucks become progressively more attractive. The Runamucks don’t have mesh were the forefoot flexes and so they should wear more uniformly than the Savants.