A 32-year-old otherwise healthy, former Division I swimmer was surfing a longboard in 2-3 foot fickle East Coast waves. After one ride he was caught inside near shore in approximately 2-3ft of water and pulled his board in close to keep from flying out and striking other surfers. As the wave crested and broke, he grasped the leash
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Surfer’s myelopathy is a perplexing condition in which young, healthy, first-time surfers develop a non-traumatic spinal cord injury, sometimes with permanent neurologic sequelae. Why first-time surfers? What is the pathophysiology? What is unique about surfing? Understanding more about this rare but serious condition will help
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Female with no significant past medical history presented to the Emergency Department with right lower extremity pain and deformity after a kitesurfing accident. The patient was launching her kite at a known kitesurfing spot in Rhode Island, when a gust of wind picked her up and launched her in the air until she collided
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30-year-old male who overfoiled (foil lifts above water-level) and crashed at high speed. His foot was grazed by the tail fin (stabilizer) of his foil causing a superficial laceration and contusion to the medial aspect of his right mid-foot as seen in photos above. The wound was irrigated, and steri-strips were placed across the
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It is heartening to see that the field of surfing medicine is sufficiently mature that not just one, but two reviews of the existing literature have recently been published. The reviews, both involving researchers at Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia cover acute surfing injuries and overuse/chronic surfing injuries.
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Surfing is a widely enjoyed sport, with participants both at the recreational and professional level, and is gaining popularity worldwide.1 There are an estimated 37 million surfers worldwide, which includes 2.7 million surfers in the United States (2015), 2.3 million surfers in Australia (2013), and 500,000 surfers in the […]
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A 58 year-old male was wave-sailing (windsurfing in surf) and attempting to come to shore. As he was carrying his gear shoreward he was hit by a breaking wave, and the 33 cm single fin on his board caused a large laceration to his left lower leg. The patient described severe bleeding to his leg which could not be […]
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Bleeding from an injury can be quite alarming, particularly for a surfer in the water where assessing an injury and quantifying the amount of bleeding can be difficult. Any significant bleeding should prompt a return to shore to further assessment. Most hemorrhage can be controlled by applying pressure directly over the wound […]
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