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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It is with much sadness that we write this tribute to SMA member and surf doctor extraordinaire, Terry Farrell, DO, who died unexpectedly while mountain biking near his home in Maine on September 22, 2018 at age 61. Terry was an emergency physician in York, ME and was an avid surfer, swimmer, and boater. Though […]
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Surfing USA: an epidemiological study of surfing injuries presenting to US EDs 2002 to 2013. From the surfing mecca of Rochester, NY comes a thorough epidemiologic study of surfing injuries presenting to emergency departments across the US. While a number of surfing-injury studies have been hospital-based, they all looked at injuries from a single hospital.1,2,3 This is the first
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Here at SM headquarters, we often have some interesting flotsam, (in this case ambergris), that crosses our bow. A few years ago, we received a large beat-up cardboard box containing the original, handwritten letters from the “Ask the surf Docs” column of Surfermagazine circa 1989, edited by our own Mark Renneker, MD. Some of the better letters […]
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HPI 63-year-old male surfer in Northern California was found floating in shore break by fellow surfers. He was wearing a full wetsuit and last seen riding a 5-foot wave, perhaps 5 minutes before the incident. When other surfers arrived to assist, the victim was not breathing spontaneously, had limp muscle tone and was blue. He […]
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This excellent article, appearing in the March 2018 issue of the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine highlights 17 years of clinical experience of the World Surfing League’s (formerly ASP) medical director, Warren Kramer, MD. Dr. Kramer, an orthopedic surgeon in Newport Beach, CA has long been the go-to physician for professional surfers around the world. […]
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Scombroid, Ciguatera, Fugu, Amnestic Shellfish Poisoning. Weird names for weird diseases all caused by eating seafood. Most surfers are aware that these diseases exist, but unless you are a toxicologist, it is likely that you are somewhat hazy about the exact causes, symptoms, and treatments of these interesting maladies. Given the strange and often overlapping […]
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In much of the world some of the best surf is found in the days following a good storm. Unfortunately, storms are often accompanied by heavy rains which flush bacteria and other undesirable goodies into the ocean. Have you ever been concerned that you might swallow some of that water nasty-looking water and get sick? […]
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