A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Although surfing has been presented at times as a sport with a danger level comparable to mountain climbing or bullfighting, its injury rate is in fact statistically similar to that of fishing and well below that of cheerleading. A 1999 study conducted by the Surfer's Medical Association (SMA) put the frequency of surfing injuries at one per every 250 surfing days—an injury being defined as any- thing serious enough to cause the surfer to miss at least one day of surfing. Lacerations, the SMA report continued, are the most common surfing injury, ac- counting for 40 percent of the total, followed by contusions (12 percent), sprains (11 percent), and fractures (6 percent). Other SMA findings: • About three in 10 injuries affect the lower extremities, with an equal number of head and neck injuries. • Wipeouts account for just over 60 percent of injuries, followed by postwipeout (or postbailout) surfboard recovery (9 percent), paddling out (7 percent), entering or exiting the water (6 percent), and duck diving (6 percent). • Sixty-six percent of injuries result from contact with a surfboard, with 55 percent of those caused by the rider's own board. Contact with fins is the leading cause of injury from a surfer's own board, while being struck by the surfboard nose is the most prevalent cause when it comes to another surfer's board. Surfboard leash recoil is involved in 13 percent of injuries. • Poisonous marine life, such as sea urchins, stingrays, jellyfish, sea snakes, and stonefish— all found in shallow tropical or temperate waters—account for less than 3 percent of all surfing injuries. Shark attacks, often con- sidered by nonsurfers to be surfing's greatest danger, are in fact rare. There were 441 reported attacks on surfers worldwide during the entire 20th century, including about two dozen fatalities. Another study, from 2002, showed that 70 percent of all surf injuries occur in waves head-high or smaller. Crowded surfing areas, inexperienced surfers, and a failure to obey the sport's unwritten rules—particularly against dropping in on another surfer's wave— are all primary causes of surfing injuries. Safety devices, such as rubber noseguards and rubber-edged fins, have been available for years, but are for the most part unused, either out of laziness or because such accouterment are regarded as uncool. Surfing helmets are even less popular. Surf breaks are described in part by their capacity to injure; shallow, hard-breaking, coral-or rock-bottomed breaks are the most dangerous. Pipeline in Hawaii has without question injured more surfers than any break in the world. In a record-breaking day for surfing injuries, 30 people were hurt at Pipeline on December 22, 1998, during a six-to-10-foot swell. Two of surfing's most famous injuries took place in back-to-back heats of the 1983 Pipeline Masters contest: Floridian surfer Steve Massfeller fractured his skull after hitting the bottom, permanently impairing his sight and memory; California's Chris Lundy then had his left leg wedged into the reef, wrenching the knee so badly that his foot was pointing behind him. Virtually every collision with the bottom in tropical locations results in scrapes, cuts, or abrasions ("reef rash") to one degree or another. Sand-bottom breaks can be dangerous as well. Pioneering Delaware surfer Bill Wise wiped out headfirst in the shallow waters at Bethany Beach, in 1965, broke his spine, and became a quadriplegic. The explosive Newport Beach Wedge, in California's Orange County, popular with bodysurfers, bodyboarders, and kneeboarders, has likely produced more spinal injuries than any other surf break. Chronic injuries such as shoulder and back pain, usually the result of too much paddling, are generally visited upon older surfers. But Chris Prosser, traveling chiropractor with the world pro tour, says that more and more younger surfers, including world champions Kelly Slater and Sunny Garcia, are experiencing chronic knee and ankle problems as a result of high- impact maneuvers like floaters and aerials. Injury rates are also going up for tow-in big-wave riders, not so much because of the giant surf they are launching into, but because they use footstraps, which create a wrenching effect on knees and ankles and also greatly increase the likelihood of being struck by the board during a wipeout. 

injuries and surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing