• Current Issue
  • About Surfing Medicine
    • History
    • About
    • Team
    • Submissions
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • A Call for Submissions
  • Surfer’s Medical Association
  • Archive (1987-2011)

ASLS Portugal Conference

Dec 09, 2014 ~ Author Terrance Farrell, DO
Villa Ana Margarida

Villa Ana Margarida – Note the Gaudi-esque architecture.

The winter in Maine was long and cold, but the anticipation of a trip to Portugal in May for the Advanced Surfing Life Support gave me hope that I’d make it through. The course was held May 5-10 in Ericiera, a half-hour from Lisbon on the beautiful Portuguese coast. The event was sponsored and coordinated by the European Association of Surfing Doctors and took place at the Villa Ana Margarida.

The conference exceeded my expectations in every way. Its five action-packed days started at 9 a.m. and finished at 6 p.m. Each day had a varied schedule but typically included a mix of clinically relevant travel and surf medicine lectures with water-based training in life-saving techniques. The evenings provided time to socialize and walk or drive to the center of town for local Portuguese food.

lisa-farrell

Lisa Farrell looks down at the break below conference headquarters.

Lectures covered topics such as drowning, hypothermia, musculoskeletal injuries, rescuing techniques and theories about waves, tides and rips. There were lectures on water disinfection, dental problems, orthopedic injuries, splinting and dislocation. There was a lecture by Ireland’s big wave surfer, Peter Conroy, discussing his experiences in water safety and a spine injury he suffered while surfing the waves at Mullaghmore Head. SMA’s very own Andrew Nathanson, M.D. offered lectures on clinically relevant surf topics such as stings and envenomations, wound management, and laceration repair. The lectures offered well-organized material clinically relevant to the practice of surfing medicine.

Practical training included hands-on instruction in providing acute life-saving care to the injured surfer. The staff included certified lifeguard instructors, wilderness medicine physicians, Emergency Medicine physicians and experienced surfing doctors. Training included the use and preparation of medical kits using readily available materials for splinting and immobilization. Extraction of the injured patient was performed in active surf conditions with an emphasis on safety and an organized approach to resuscitating the critically injured victim. The scenarios included individual and multi-trauma settings using available resources for water extraction and spinal immobilization, splinting and prevention of hypothermia. The clinical scenarios brought the information from the classroom lectures to a realistic setting that helped to solidify the learning experience.

ASLS Course 2014 (Advanced Surfing Medicine Life Support) from The EASD on Vimeo.

nathanson-and-farrell

Nathanson (L) and Farrell (R) heading down to the left at Foz do Lizandro.

The conference was physically demanding, given the combination of lectures and practical training. The course is accredited for 32 hours of CME credit and the participants earned each one of these. I managed to escape for a two-hour surf session each morning before class, or for a sunset session in the evenings. The local surf breaks include Ribeira D’ilhas (my favorite), Coxos, Sao Loureno, Foz do Lizandro and Sao Juliao. We had training one day further south in Cascais, and surfed in Carcavelos. Several participants made the drive to Peniche and surfed Super Tubos, annual host to the ASP tour. The conditions were favorable, with wave heights consistently in the 4 to 7 foot range with 11-second intervals, air temperature of 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and the water was 61 degrees. I was able to wear a Patagonia 3 mm wetsuit for a one-to-two-hour session without getting cold. It has been a long, cold winter, with 7mm gloves and booties, so I was glad to leave them behind.

The town of Ericeira offers a variety of restaurants (63 listed on TripAdvisor) and nightlife. Based on a limited sample of five nights, our favorites were the restaurant Prim, Tik Tak and Esplanada Furnas. The nightlife was active, but the day’s activities encouraged a reasonable bedtime each night. The local seafood was fresh and the pastry shops plentiful. We rented our boards from Ericeira Surf Center, directly across the street from Villa Ana Margarida which stocked good-quality fiberglass short boards made in their shop, as well as a variety of long boards. The owner gave us a clear understanding of the local breaks and conditions, and the rates were discounted for conference participants. There is a Board Rider Quiksilver store across from the Vila where we had a welcome gathering and a closing party at the end of the conference. This store had a café, which served lunch and great coffee, as well as an impressive skate park with two bowls, banks and step-ups in a large outdoor area. The terrace behind the store overlooks the skate park and a beautiful open ocean view.

ocean-swim

Course participants return from a long open-water swim.

I can safely say that Vila Ana Margarida is unlike any other Oceanside resort you will ever visit. The Vila has 12 uniquely designed traditional fisherman houses with Portuguese and Gaudi influences, designed and constructed by the owner over a 20-year period. The units are surrounded by private gardens, with a swimming pool and open ocean views. It is located right on Matadouro surf beach. The owner, Margarida Casado, and his son-in-law Hugo Augusto made every effort to accommodate the conference and our hectic schedule. The conference participants were the only guests during our five-day stay, which made for a relaxed community experience. The property is home to several other species of animals, with peacocks, goats and chickens offering a background symphony to support the local birdcalls.

This was the second conference I had the fortune to attend in Portugal in the last year, each sponsored by the European Association of Surfing Doctors. I am impressed by the dedication of this group of young physicians and medical practitioners whose goal is to advance the practice of surfing medicine. The attendees were from a variety of medical fields including physical therapy, orthopedics, anesthesiology, emergency medicine and pre-hospital care. It was a truly international group, with participants from Italy, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, England, United States, Portugal, Norway, Denmark and Spain. One of the highlights of the conference was a “Battle of the Nations,” an impromptu singing contest that the Irish claim to have won but is still being debated. Completion of the conference was followed by written and clinical testing resulting in a Certificate of ASLS proficiency, 32 CME credits and wonderful memories of the experience to last until the next conference in September 2014. The EASD conference on Surfing Medicine will be held Sept. 9-13 in Sligo/Mullaghmore, Ireland.

Posted in Surfing Conferences
←
→
Comments are disabled

Summer 2018 Issue #31 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • No Other Options (a true story)
  • Big Wave Surfing: A physician’s perspective
  • Origins of the Paddle Out Ceremony
  • Case Report: 63 y.o. male surfer “found down”
  • What Happened to Zika?
  • Orthopedic Injuries in Professional Surfers: A Retrospective Study at a Single Orthopedic Center

Summer/Fall 2017 Issue #30 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Don’t Eat the Fish!
  • A Surfing Life
  • The SMA Barefoot Doctor Course
  • The Surfer Health Study
  • Terry Farrell Interview
  • Case Report: Eye Trauma from a Surfboard

Summer 2016 Issue #29 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Catching Waves: Perspectives of Physicians Who Surf
  • Should you Frika about Zika?
  • Case Report: A 29-Year-Old Female Surfer with a Thigh Laceration
  • Case Report: Central Cord Syndrome in a Bodyboarder
  • Images from Surfing Medicine
  • Druku’s Life
  • Druku: SMA Remembers a Great Man
  • SMA Conference Report – Nicaragua 2016

Summer 2015 Issue #28 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor: Surfing Medicine to the Extreme
  • Sun Protection for Surfers
  • Cold Water Surfing and Hypothermia
  • 2013 Triple Crown + HIC Pro Injury Report
  • Wanna pee on my Wana? Sea Urchin Injuries, a Literature Review
  • Larger Than Life, Don James, MD
  • Granny and Doc
  • SMA Nicaragua Conference Report, May 28 – June 4, 2015

Winter 2014-15 Issue #27 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Beware the Devil Fish – “Don’t tread on me”
  • SURF: A Unified Surfing Competition Medical Reference Form
  • Surf Stronger, Paddle Longer
  • Sea Ulcers
  • The SMA Scholarship Program
  • Tavi 2014 Summary
  • ASLS Portugal Conference

Fall 2013 Issue #26 Table of Contents

  • A Message from the (new) Editor
  • Case Report: A Nicaraguan Stowaway
  • Knee Injuries in the Barrel: How Heavy and Deep Can You Go?
  • Concussions in Surfers
  • Surfer’s Ear – The Bane of Cold Water Surfers
  • Surfing Injuries – Literature Review
  • Keeping the Stoke: Dealing with Declining Competence in the Aging Surfer
  • Helping Vets to Feel the Healing Waters

Fall 2019 Issue #32 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Surfing Injuries at the Pipe Masters 2013-2017
  • A Non-Healing Surf-Wound
  • Images in Surfing Medicine
  • Terry Farrell Tribute
  • Surfing USA, a Literature Review
  • The Baker: Archives of the SMA

Fall 2020 Issue #33 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • In the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Should Surfers Continue to Surf?
  • Improving Safety in Surfing
  • Case Report: Widespread Pruritic Papules after Bodyboarding in Long Island
  • Case Report: Severe Fin Laceration
  • Tourniquets and Hemorrhage Control

Fall 2022 Issue #35 Table of Contents

  • Message from the Editor, 2022
  • Life Rolls On
  • Beware the Leash: Seymour Fracture of the Finger
  • Bill Jones Ph.D, in Memoria
  • The Old Man and the Sea: Video on Surfiatrics from the 2022 World Congress on Extreme Sports Medicine
  • Common Surfing Injuries: Video on Surfing Injuries from the 2022 World Congress on Extreme Sports Medicine
  • Images in Surf Medicine
  • Literature Review: Is Surfer’s myelopathy an acute hyperextension-induced myelopathy? A systematic synthesis of case studies and proposed diagnostic criteria.
  • 2022 Magdalena Bay Conference Report

Fall 2021 Issue #34 Table of Contents

  • Letter from the Editor
  • Impact of SMA Conferences on Wellbeing
  • Surfing and Health in the Covid-19 Era: A Narrative Review
  • Case Report: Femur Fracture in a Kitesurfer
  • Images in Surfing Medicine
  • Characteristics of Surfers as Bystander Rescuers in Europe
  • Acute Injuries in Surfing: A Systematic Review
  • Mag Bay 2021

Browse by Category

  • Acute Surfing Injury (22)
  • Assorted Flotsam and Jetsam (6)
  • Case Report (13)
  • Chronic Surfing Injury (9)
  • Conference Report (1)
  • Conferences (2)
  • Environmental Injury (10)
  • History of Surfing Medicine (2)
  • Images in Surfing Medicine (2)
  • Infectious Disease (5)
  • Letter from the Editor (10)
  • Literature Review (9)
  • Original Research (6)
  • Other (4)
  • Rehabilitation (3)
  • Surfing Conferences (6)
  • Travel Medicine (5)
  • Uncategorized (1)

Tag Cloud

Abscess ACL repair Aging Auditory Exostosis Big Wave Surfing Botfly Central America Concussion Conference Report Dangerous Marine Animals Dermatobium Homonis Drowning Evacuation External Auditory Exostosis Femur fractur Head Injury injury kitesurfing Knee Injury Literature review: Surfing Injuries Marine Envenomations Message from Editor Nambila Paddle Out Ceremony Palliative Care Pro Surfing Rehabilitation Sea Ulcer Stingray Summer Surfer's Ear Surfing Surfing Death Surfing Injury Surfing Therapy Swimmer's Ear Tavarua Veterans Vets

Copyright Notice

All written content on this website is the copyright of the Surfer's Medical Association. Material may not be reproduced for commercial or non-commercial uses without express permission from editor. Contact the Editor to request the appropriate permission.

© 2022

Contact the Editor

Contact the editor at ANathanson@Lifespan.org.

Join SMA

Learn more about Surfer's Medical Association
Top