A surf doctor is a know-it-all. Has to be. Take a look at this issue of Surfing Medicine, and you’ll see why. Part neurosurgeon (Bodyboarder with central cord syndrome), part ID specialist (Should you Frika about Zika?) part wildlife expert (Images from surfing medicine), all of these topics and more are included in this 29th edition of the Journal.
The exiting thing about our broad-based specialty, besides the fact that it requires you to get out there and surf, is that it requires you to constantly expand your medical knowledge base. When you’re on a surf trip with friends or family you are the doctor. You may be a radiologist, pediatrician, or endocrinologist back home, but out there on the ocean it doesn’t make a difference. If anything happens they are coming to you for advice. Fin cut, stingray sting, head injury -on a boat trip in the South Pacific two days from the nearest hospital – these are your problems now and you need to deal with them.
Worried Surf Doc
If the scenarios above are giving you the queasy feeling you get when you paddle out in waves that are beyond your comfort zone, don’t worry, Surfing Medicine is here to help to help. Like a good Boy Scout, you need to be prepared for anything, so read on. Read this issue, read the back issues, read the next issue. Better yet, come to one of our conferences in Nicaragua, Monterey, or Tavarua.
Be a know-it-all.
With Much Aloha
Andrew Nathanson, MD