Author Topic: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.  (Read 9374 times)

SD Surfer

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Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« on: October 22, 2016, 11:57:25 PM »
Paddled La Jolla Cove again this morning... Great weather, good friends, lots of fishies, got a few little waves on my new Coreban Fusion (yesterday was the first time I've taken it out) enjoying watching my buddy and his man-cub sharing some great Father & Son bonding time.

I live in paradise and life is good.

Got back to the beach by the Marine Room Restaurant, beached the board and walked out to cool off and look for some Leopard Sharks...

Then BAM!!



"Sunuvabitch, mother effin cork soaker!!!"  Stuck it in me and broke it off!

I been stung twice before in my 41 years of surfing, and those hurt, but Holy Crap this one was different. With the stinger still buried it kept delivering venom, and waves of pretty incredible pain.



Ichabod Spoonbill

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2016, 04:58:21 AM »
Wow! Holy crap, that looks painful! That was a stingray?
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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2016, 05:05:33 AM »
Hells Bells that's gnarly. It's gonna take some cleaning out. Where did you get medical help and what did they do?

Night Wing

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2016, 06:25:58 AM »
It looks nasty but I know it hurt a lot more than it looked. Sorry to see you're going to be out of commission for awhile until that puncture wound heals. Hope you heal up soon without any complications from bacteria.

Here on the upper Texas coast where I go, our water is mostly sandy brown in color and the visibility to see below the surface is maybe a couple of inches in the summertime. Wade fisherman and those not wade fishing, but just enjoying the shallows wading in knee deep water, if they know what is good for them, they shuffle their feet because we have a robust population of stingrays. If there is a stingray close and if you're shuffling your feet, one of your feet will nudge a ray and it will scoot off leaving a plume of sand in the water where it was resting on the bottom.

The emergency room at the John Sealy hospital in Galveston, Texas sees quite a lot of stingray injuries to people's feet starting from early Spring to mid Fall. Right now our beachwater temperature is still close to 80 degrees. Stingray injuries usually get the top of the foot, sometimes ankles and calf muscles because people walking and not shuffling their bare feet, unknowingly step on a stingray and the ray whips it's long tail around a nails the person breaking off the long barb.

Our rays get quite big too. Where I used to go flounder gigging at night with a gig and light, I'd sometimes see a ray three feet across from wing tip to wing tip. These rays can drive a barb through a tennis shoe quite easily.
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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2016, 06:35:40 AM »
Ouch,

Sadly at my launches I now have to watch out for used heroin syringes (usually capped)....on lovely Cape Cod.

SD Surfer

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2016, 09:47:30 AM »
He was just a little feller too, I watched him swim away after he tagged me.

My buddy drove me the half mile or so to the lifeguard station, and while I was soaking my foot in hot water and deciding whether or not I wanted to yank it out myself, 3 more people came up with stings, and one guy got led up by his girlfriend with the tiniest little boo-boo cut on his arm.

Lifeguards said "We're not allowed to pull them out" but a fire/rescue guy (they go to La Jolla Shores for their runs) said "I can't pull it, but I might accidentally drop my Multi-Tool right here on the seawall for a minute" (wink-wink)

I handed his pliers to my buddy and said "Do it" and his eyes got a little wide.
I gave it a little tug and watched the skin come up with it, it seemed to be in there pretty solid,  so I opted to go to the ER and get it (hopefully numbed up) removed and cleaned out.

My buddy went beck to get boards secured and pick up his son.

I have a pretty high threshold for most types of pain, but while sitting there soaking my foot, there were a couple of waves of pain that actually made me a little dizzy. Then again it was getting close to lunchtime by now and I hadn't eaten much.

SD Surfer

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2016, 10:00:58 AM »
After changing out of my wetsuit into boardshorts (No mean feat with a Wolverine-style talon sticking out of your toe) Buddy # 2 drove me in my truck to my house to pick up my wife and a couple of Tramadol  ;D he waited there for his wife and my wife drove me the 5 minutes to the ER, hitting every bump along the way.

Walked in and the woman checking me in goes "Wow, he got you pretty good! We need to get that outta' there so he stops giving you venom." Sits me down, grabs my foot and with a gauze pad grabs the stinger and "Boink!" pulls it out like nothing! :-[

"That's it?" She said "Well, I was a Lifeguard for 6 years before I came here. Were you at La Jolla Shores by any chance?"

2 Tramadol, 1 shot of Tordal (anti-inflammatory,) and 1 shot of Dilodid (the good stuff) and 8 hours of soaking in hot water later, and it feels waaaayy better today.

If I wouldn't be in so much trouble with the wife, I probably could have surfed today... the waves do look kinda' fun.

I'm glad I had 2 good friends with me who stepped up and said "We got  you, just go, we'll take care of the boards, we'll bring your stuff to your house, just go."

PonoBill

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2016, 12:42:58 PM »
As you know, the barb has barbs. Pretty coarse ones. The possibility of them extending and ripping skin during withdrawal is the big concern, but usually they stay fairly flat. It's best to get medical assistance to remove them, but if that's a long way away it's probably better to get them out than to keep taking venom, which pumps down the grooves from glands inside the barb. I've never had a stingray barb in me, but I had some close calls, including one that pierced my wetsuit like a toggle (in and out) but inexplicably slid over the skin. Still burned like a bitch. I thought it was through my skin so I cut the suit. Just a scratch. I turned the suit into a shorty.

Could have been worse, though I'm sure that was more than enough pain:

« Last Edit: October 23, 2016, 12:48:43 PM by PonoBill »
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SD Surfer

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2016, 01:20:17 PM »
What, in the bloody hell, is ^^^ that?! :o

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2016, 01:23:27 PM »
Sorry you had that adventure SD. But I'm sure a lot of us have learned something from it. I have. Rays weren't really on my radar.
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southwesterly

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2016, 02:20:16 PM »
I feel for you SD Surfer, that had to hurt.

But don't think you're safe just because you're on land.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2016, 02:21:47 PM by southwesterly »

SD Surfer

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2016, 03:12:18 PM »
Sorry you had that adventure SD. But I'm sure a lot of us have learned something from it. I have. Rays weren't really on my radar.

They should be, cuz they will ruin your day real quick! Having been stung a couple of times and as often as I see them, I'm usually pretty good about shuffling my feet, especially during summer, but sometimes I forget.

So near as I can tell from the pictures and the bloodstain on the stinger (pen is pointing to it) he buried it about 3/4" into my toe. No wonder it felt like it would pull out my entire soul if I yanked it out.

You can sorta' see the barbs, they don't look like much when they're laying down, but if you run your finger along them you can feel how well they grab flesh.

I was thinking maybe I'd make a necklace or something to hang from my rearview mirror, whaddya' think? ;D

surfercook

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2016, 03:52:56 PM »
OUCH! That looked NASTY! Wear that necklace proudly!
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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2016, 11:46:41 AM »
Damn I was there last Wed because I got throttled at South Mission & couldn't get out.  Paddled out in front of La Jolla hotel. Hour in I try to catch a wave,  I'm on the top looking down & i see 5 Leopard sharks in about 3 feet of water.  I freaked out a little. Then the wave behind me broke so I knew I was jumping in with em. They left for a while & then a bunch came back about 30 minutes later. I know they're harmless but still an eerie feeling. I saw a few sting rays there too.  Going to the same spot tomorrow morning as SM is supposed to be big again. Guess I'll keep a pair of pliers in the car & hope I don't fall on any. Does this happen more at La Jolla opposed to other SD beaches?

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Re: Another perfect day in Paradise... Until it wasn't.
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2016, 11:59:49 AM »
This is why I prefer slightly murky water.  When the waters around Santa Cruz become crystal clear, it feels like surfing on air, but I am really spooked out when I can see all the stuff down there including the critters.  It just rattles my primeval cage.
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