Photo credit: Jeff Divine
The siren of Cloudbreak and the ebullient Fijian spirit called us home once again. This year marked the 29th Surfer’s Medical Association trip to Tavarau, with 32 adults and 28 children making the trip from the United States, Australia, Japan, and Puerto Rico. We had a good swell at the beginning and then another at the end of the week, with Scott Winer immortalizing our drops, barrels, and biffs. The talks were notably excellent this year, 11 in total, with topics ranging from surfing trauma case series, medical art history, to how to deliver a baby on a surf trip. Many thanks to all who presented.
Neurologist Mike Rowbotham firing central and peripheral nervous systems at max capacity.
Villages
We again brought standardized medications to supply the Nambila and Momi villages and the regional health nurse. This was made possible, yet again, by the tireless work and financial support from our esteemed UCSF pharmacist, Lori Reisner. Thanks so much for your work Lori! The primary focus of the clinics this year included hypertension and diabetes education and screening, scabies eradication, and vision checks.
This year’s school visit included the donation and set-up of 8 laptops to facilitate computer and typing skills (spearheaded by Victor Stewart), a complete collection of soccer cleats, socks, and balls to allow the Nambila school to participate in the soccer league (collected and hauled to Fiji by 10 yr old Benjamin Pennel), and a job offer for Lisa Sullivan, who will stay in the Nambila school for the next month as a soccer coach and English teacher. Victor Stewart and Ward Smith continue to spearhead the school efforts, with planned projects including classroom fan installation, further computer donations, and more for both the Nambila and Momi schools.
We also held a meeting to discuss the future of SMA involvement in the villages, focusing on the need to evolve with Nambila and Momis’ changing needs. If you plan on joining us for the 30th SMA trip to Fiji, stayed tuned as we discuss and implement what we think will be some exciting and impactful changes in our village health education and clinics.
Cardiologist Enrique Figueroa carefully inspects what appears to be a non-occluded LAD.
Pediatrician Damien Mardsen makes childs play of a nice clean wall at Cloudbeak.
SMA Conference Fees: Where do they go?
Every adult attendee of the SMA Tavi trip pays a conference fee. The fee helps to fund, in part, a scholarship for villagers to attend college. We have, over the years, supported many village kids who’ve gone on to careers in law, medicine, and other pursuits. Paula Smith continues to work with Sunya in Nambila to pick out the most promising and deserving students for funding.
In addition, the fee pays for a large donation each year to the Tavarua Employees’ Christmas Fund. This is basically the tip from our group in appreciation for the amazing care and feeding that we get whilst on Tavi.
The fee also helps support SMA efforts and administrative costs. Note that Bill Jones PhD, our director, does not take a salary from his work for us. He does coordinate SMA trips and attends some of the meetings at SMA expense. Note also that the Tavarua SMA coordinator (for the past three years Ethan Wilson) is not paid by the SMA, but is, instead, supported by Tavarua in exchange for coordination of the trip.
Back to the trip…. We had almost as many kids as adults on this trip. They were seen occasionally by their parents as they ran from swimming pool to hot tub, snorkeling to surfing the beginner waves at Swimming Pools, SUPing, kayaking, playing pool, Ping-Pong, volleyball, and surfing Cloudbreaks and Restaurants along with the rest of us. Kids’ faces seemed always stuck in grin mode.
The food on Tavi was, again, wonderful with plenty of variety: Mexican, Indian, Fijian and more traditional US/Oz fare. Tavi strives to provide plenty of fresh veggies, local fruit, fish and options to fit most diets. Very tasty.
Next year will mark the 30th year that the SMA has come to Tavi. We hope to bring a full cadre of medicos (and, hopefully, dentists) including some of the old guard from past trips. Be sure to be in touch with the trip coordinator Ethan Wilson (ethan.wilson@comcast.net) if you have interest in the trip, or visit Surfers Medical Association conferences page. Note that there is already a LOT of interest and the trip will fill soon.
To all who attended this year and helped with the village/school work as well as the lectures, a big vinaka (Fijian for thanks) from all of us at the SMA.