Effects

Cold water in your ear canal causes irregular bony growths inside your ear called exstoses.  As the ear canal closes you begin experiencing the following symptoms:

• Reduced hearing until complete loss of hearing
• Water stuck in your ears
• Debris stuck in your ears
• Ear infections  more often
• More serious ear infections

These symptoms develop slowly over years.  The blockage and symptoms only get worse over time and require surgery to fix.

Diagram of clear ear canal vs surfer’s ear

Cross-section of normal ear and Surfer’s Ear (Photo: cdn-surfline.com)

Clear ear canal vs surfer’s ear

Left, a healthy eardrum. At right, an eardrum with Surfer’s Ear (Photo: cdn-surfline.com)

Causes

Surfers ear is caused by cold water and time.  The more time you are exposed to cold water the more bone grows.  The colder the water in your ear, the faster bone grows.  River surfers who surf in below freezing temperatures are at particular risk.  If your river has ice in it you are surfing the coldest water possible, colder than most oceans, which means you will lose hearing faster.

A Japanese Study of Surfers Ear in Professional & Amateur Surfer
See pictures of surfer’s ear and overview of a study on Surfer’s Ear.

Treatment

The ear canal is cleared by surgery.  Typically either a small drill or chisel is used to remove the bone growths.  The drill or chisel either enters through the ear canal or the ear is cut open from behind.  After surgery, if you surf to soon you risk infections and other problems.  Typically it takes a couple of weeks to months to recover depending on the surgery and the surfer.

UCIrvine video of surgery to remove surfer’s ear

Prevention

Wear ear plugs and a hood in cold water.  Wearing both ear plugs and a hood can completely stop or at least dramatically slow surfer’s ear.

Example of moldable ear plugs that shape to your ear

Moldable Silicone Putty Earplugs

Example of pre-shaped ear plugs

Ear Seals Ear Plugs

You can also get custom made ear plugs with help from an audiologist or a hear aid dispenser.

This article was written by Neil Egsgard, ARSA President.
Alberta River Surfing Association — RiverSurfing.ca/forum
Surf Anywhere Project — SurfAnywhere.ca

The post Cold & Deaf: Losing Your Hearing to Surfing appeared first on Riverbreak.

Every riversurfer knows that germs-polluted river water is not supposed to be drunk. Nevertheless, it sometimes happens that a great deal of the “germs soup” ends up in your stomach. The best chance to swallow dangerous bacterias happens to be at high water surf sessions when rivers are overly polluted.

Many of us keep their eyes and ears open for ways to help protecting their health.

This wouldn’t concern me, if I had not had bad experiences with bacteria polluted high water in the past. Many of us keep their eyes and ears open for ways to help protecting their health when surfing in contaminated conditions. I recently stumbled upon a new (natural) extract which could prove viable for health-concerned river surfers. The other day, a local chemist recommended a herbal extract (“Grazer Haustropfen”) which is known to work well against all sorts of stomach issues.

The magic (and very strong!) drink is a herbal extract useful to protect your stomach against the adverse effects of high water river surf sessions. Unfortunately, it seems that the drink is only available at our local chemist in Graz (Austria) — if you’re keen to try it, get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to organise a shipment. Otherwise, check the ingredients and I’m confident there are heaps of other herbal extracts out there that have the exact same effect.

The post Digesting Nasty High Water Sessions appeared first on Riverbreak.

There are two essential things that need to be trained in your breath-holding workout: body and mind. Most of the exercises focus on physical aspects, but being “mentally prepared” is key too.

The logic behind your whole workout is simple: you want your body to perform while using only minimal amounts of oxygen. Here, the issue is that river surfers usually use their thighs to paddle out of a current. The thigh muscles, however, are the biggest muscles in our body — nothing burns your breath faster. To increase your stamina it is crucial to boost your muscles without burning additional amounts of air.

An excellent training to increase your stamina are swimming laps combined with simple breathing exercises. Consciously slowing down your breath or breathing every other stroke will boost your stamina significantly.

A more extreme breath-holding workout is running rocks underwater. Note that this advanced training bears the risk of a blackout and thus should never be done alone. Another workout which can be done in a pool is swimming laps underwater — hold your breath and use swim fins.

Getting comfortable in such situations is crucial and it’s your state of mind that will pull you through in the end.

If you’re into diving you will find that freediving is another way to train your lungs and to greatly increase your cardiovascular performance. Freediving does not involve the use of scuba gear or other external breathing devices, but rather relies on your ability to hold your breath until resurfacing.

All these exercises will greatly increase your underwater time — but they are useless if your mental state doesn’t keep up with your physical fitness. Breath-holding exercises only pay off if they’re combined with mental exercises (as many of them are used in freediving).

Ultimately, you need to be physically and mentally ready in these defining moments. Being able to hold your breath for minutes in a pool is different from being able to have a clear mind when you’re trapped in a current. Getting comfortable in such situations is crucial and it’s your state of mind that will pull you through in the end.

Some horrifying stories about monster hold downs may be tales but many are true. To worry less about these stories and to prepare yourself for extreme situations: Get your lungs in shape and strenghten your mental equilibrium.

The post How to Hold your Breath During a Longer Hold Down appeared first on Riverbreak.