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The shopping center is jamming
with lots of cars, lots of people, and lots of noise, all of it surrounding
everyone but Sid Abruzzi. In the midst of this cacophonous environment, Sid is
encased in total silence. A wipeout earlier in the day had completely clogged
his left and right ears, the latter of which hadn’t heard a word in over ten
years. At this moment, Sid is functionally deaf. The cause is acute exostosis,
more commonly known as “Surfer’s Ear.” While Sid often jokes, “It’s a good
thing I didn’t run into anyone who knew me,” the reality was that unless he could
read someone’s lips, he would never know if anyone called out his name that
evening.
Sid “The Package” Abruzzi has
over 45 years of hardcore winter surfing experience. From his Newport, RI, home
to Santa Cruz, CA, to five seasons at Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa, years of
epic coldwater sessions have been offset by an increasingly serious Surfer’s Ear
problem. Ten years ago, Sid had surgery performed on his left ear. The drilling
technique at the time was limited to only one ear, and the exostosis eventually
returned, becoming noticeable and annoying over the last four years. Lack of
medical insurance and funds put off Sid’s needed surgery until now.
Surfer’s Ear is a narrowing of
the ear canal, which is caused by the production of new layers of bone as the
ear reacts to repeated exposure to cold water. Picture a clear open canal, and
then pinch it so that it resembles an hourglass. That’s a good image of what
Surfer’s Ear looks like. Immediately you can see that water no longer freely
flows in and out. As water and wax get trapped in the ear, chronic infections,
pain, and potential deafness can occur. Untreated, Surfer’s Ear can progress to
the point where the ear canal is 100% closed.
Sid takes out a plastic vial
labeled with the name of a Santa Cruz surfer with Newport roots and pours the
contents onto the palm of his hand. Bone chips and fragments that had been
drilled out from one of Patrick “Wick” Murphy’s ear canals are more numerous
and larger than what one would expect from such a small body part. Sid happily
claimed possession of this vial when Wick’s wife was about to toss it. The
amount of bone from just that one ear is an eye-opener.
Many surfers are afflicted by
surfer’s ear. Dr. Robert Scott, president of Doc’s Proplugs (www.proplugs.com), has found that 74% of the avid surfers he has studied
have Surfer’s Ear. In a Surfline.com article (http://www.surfline.com/community/whoknows/whoknows.cfm?id=1976) explaining Surfer’s Ear, Santa Cruz otolaryngologist
Dr. Douglas Hetzler stated that the affliction develops “over typically at
least 10 years of serious water time — one study estimated it took about
3000 hours of cumulative surfing in cold water to cause significant bone
growth.” Sid’s otolaryngologist, Dr. James Dobbin of Middletown, RI, says that
while it’s probable that many local surfers have Surfer’s Ear in various
degrees, waveriders often wait until their ears are almost totally closed
before seeking medical help. The real threat of impending deafness with 90% or
more closure is a great motivator to get the surgery done. Without health
insurance, Sid waited much longer than most.
Back in 1995, Mike Tabeling took
an ailing Sid to see a doctor in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The doctor took
a look at Sid’s ears and declared that he saw “a textbook example” of Surfer’s Ear.
“If you’ve ever seen Sid’s hair, you can imagine what the inside of his ear
looks like,” Tabeling laughs. On a more serious note, Mike talks about Sid’s
“bad time” in Africa, when “he couldn’t hear and he was in pain. Both ear
canals were closed up and infected… Sid was trying anything to relieve the pain,
even using some weird waxy cone-shaped device that you stick in your ear and
set on fire.” From personal experience, Mike readily sympathized with Sid’s
plight. “I know what he’s going through, because I’ve had each of my ears
drilled twice. The operation is hell. It leaves one feeling like you’ve just
been run over by a truck.”
Sooner or later, all coldwater
surfers hear tales of one of their own getting their ears drilled out, usually
accompanied by graphic descriptions of how the doctor had to cut the poor guy’s
ear lobe so it would fold over to give the drill a clear shot at the blockage.
Fortunately, those days are behind us with the advent of chisels. Yes, chisels
are the new cutting edge!
Dr. Scott of Doc’s Proplugs has
this to say about chisels: “The chisel technique for removing exostosis and
osteomas is by far better than drilling. It is less traumatic to other tissues,
and since the procedure is silent, the delicate hair cells in the cochlea are
not injured. The loud high-frequency noise of the drill causes severe deafness
oftentimes.” A good description of Surfer’s Ear and the chisel technique being
performed by Dr. Hetzler can be found here (http://www.pamf.org/ent/services/surfersear.html) (Warning! This video is not for the squeamish.)
Dr. Dobbin used the chisel
technique on both of Sid’s ears with spectacular results. Sid regained hearing
in both ears after a healing process that took six weeks. And he was surfing
again exactly 42 days after the operation. After so many years of partial
hearing loss, Sid reacted joyously to all the sounds around him as if hearing
them for the first time.
How do you prevent Surfer’s Ear?
Keep your ears warm and dry. If you live in the tropics, you’re pretty much all
set. If you surf anywhere cold, earplugs like Dr. Scott’s Doc’s Proplugs and a
neoprene cap or hood are the best you can do while in the water. Keeping your
ears warm at night while you sleep by using something warm to cover them, such
as a polythermal headband, can help forestall the growth of Surfer’s Ear.
Advancements in wetsuit
technology have allowed longer and more frequent coldwater surf sessions. Even
when the water is “ice cream headache” cold, there will be surfers, mostly
young guys, in the lineup without hoods. And while earplugs have been around
for decades and have been proven to make a difference without adversely affecting
your hearing, earplug users remain a minority.
If you surf in cold water, you
will experience exostosis bone growth in your ear canal. The question that you
need to ask yourself is, “Are the potential consequences of Surfer’s Ear enough
to motivate me to protect my ears if I’m not doing so already?” Think about Sid
or Mike’s experiences, or ask any of the thousands of other surfers who have
gone through Surfer’s Ear surgery. Watch Dr. Hetzler’s video a few times. And,
if you still intend to surf in coldwater without earplugs and a hood, think
about going to a busy shopping center surrounded by total silence.
Epilogue
The Water
Brothers are adjusting to Sid’s newfound hearing ability. Brian Burns says,
loud enough for Sid to have heard even before his operation, “Now we’ll have to
whisper when we talk about The Package.” Sid is all smiles. He’s hearing. He’s
surfing. He’s happy. And he still isn’t wearing earplugs in the water. Yet.
My own
doctor informs me during my annual physical that while he can see the eardrum,
my right ear canal is over 50% closed and there’s wax trapped in my left ear
canal. The news is a bit of a shock. Whether I’ve been surfing in tropical
warmth or North Atlantic cold, I’ve worn earplugs 90% of the time since the
late ‘80s. But my winter surf sessions began in 1965, and, as the doctors say, Surfer’s
Ear is a cumulative thing. Dr. Dobbin’s card is on my desk. An exostosis
assessment is definitely in my future.
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