How bad is your Surfer's Ear (exostosis)?

[Zooport]

We all have it to some extent; the slow bone growth blocking our ears due to cold water.  How bad is yours?  Have you had the surgery?  Do you plan to?  Were you like me when you had a checkup, the doctor saying "Ah, surfer huh?"   They tell me that even the Hawaii guys get it, but the Santa Cruz guys get it much worse.  

My doctor went so far as to say, "You're a goofy foot, aren't you?"  I asked how he knew and he said that your front ear gets more cold than the back ear, so the exostosis is worse in the ear you lead with.  So a goofy foot's right ear is worse and a regular foot's left ear is worse. 

[RATbeachrider]

Could be a good excuse ... sorry honey,  can't hear you ... I've got exostosis.

[Roundhouse]

I had surgery about ten years ago and I live in Florida. I had never heard of it but started asking around and found it was more common, especially in cold water like Cal or NC.  My Doc said it was from surfing young and they grow for life, even it you don't surf. If you start surfing later in life you may never get them. It is claimed the First People that lived on the coast here had the growths. Doc said it is the way you turned your head to dive under waves that determined which ear was worse. Both sound plausible (and maybe related) as I am regular foot and it was the left ear. The out patient surgery in the hospital was more than I expected. They put me under, no pain but I was zoned out for a days afterwards and had to stay out of the water for a while. Doc told me the bad ear was now about the same as the good ear and we should proceed with the other. I decided not to. I was diving professionally and it was a nuisance not being able to clear my ear for days. I never had infections or earaches. I never noticed loss of hearing and I got tested yearly as part of my work. I don't dive very often anymore and SUP keeps my head out of the water most of the time. I still have a little water get trapped, bought an ear dryer and it works pretty well.

[1tuberider]

I had the surgery. Ever since I wear my earplugs faithfully.

You know when its time to get the surgery.  A drop of water gets in your ear and causes
swelling and you can only hear out of one ear. Fresh water is really bad compared to salt water. Hearing with only one ear sucks because of background noise. After six weeks of that and all the humiliation letting people assume you know what they said you will do anything to get your hearing back.

One of the best feelings I had was when the doc pulled the plug out of my ear after surgery and I had stereo again. You really appreciate both ears working when one has been plugged for a while.

I still have surfers ear as the canals are really small, but I have not had the loss of hearing because I always wear my plugs even if it is just to go swimming.

To avoid surfers ear wear your ear plugs every session.  I plug my ears with the silicone ones you can buy at a pharmacy.

[JimK]

A life in the COLD water of NJ (predominately) both my ear canals are the size of "pin heads" when they are supposed to be the size of a pencil eraser

I'm avaoiding surgery as long as i can...So far so good

jimK
www.extremewindsurfing.com

[Zooport]

An ear drier helps get the water out, I found.  Then, I had the surgery in 2009.  Piece of cake, Jim.  So much more comfortable now that they are both done.  They can now go in without cutting the back of your ear.  They use a micro camera and micro scalpel to go right into your ear canal.  The two bad things about it was the price tag, about 15K each to my insurance.  The other is the mandatory 4 - 6 weeks out of the water while they heal.  That's the REALLY bad part.   Having someone cut you ear?  Ok, no prob.  Missing 6 weeks of water time?  ARGGGG NOOO!

[Zooport]

Could be a good excuse ... sorry honey,  can't hear you ... I've got exostosis.

  Dang!  Shouldn't have gotten the surgery after all.

[stoneaxe]

I get mine looked at by my otolaryngologist every year. No signs yet...he's says it's unlikely since I started surfing late but it doesn't just happen to surfers...anyone on the water in the cold frequently is succeptable. I only have one ear that works so keeping it functioning is very important to me....being half deaf sucks bad enough...

I wouldn't worry about the surgery Jim, I've heard it's not too bad...can't be as bad as this.....they flapped my ear onto my cheeck and basically took an ice cream scoop to the inner works of my ear for this.... . My left ear now only goes in about 1/2" then stops.

[micksmith]

My left ear has a bit of growth and I'm a goofy I also have tinnitus which is really annoying.

[Weasels wake]

Okay, okay, this goofy foot thing is a bunch of crap, I've got it also in both ears, 90% in the right and 70% in the left, and I'm regular foot.  It's not like we are spending most of our time on a wave when we are out there, well maybe since SUP surfing, but not with prone surfing.
Most of the time we sit on our boards looking out at the horizon looking for the next set.  Our prevailing winds along the west coast are from the NW, so our right ear is getting blown into the entire time we are waiting.  Your doc is wrong.

I've never got my ears done, the bone will just grow back if you go back to your old ways, and with 90% closure I still have 100% hearing.  You don't need much of an opening to be able to hear quite well.  So prevention is the key, keep the wind and cold out, and your ear cannels will stop closing up.  I've been doing that for about 20 years now, and have no problem, I use silly putty, but if you want to know more about that, use the search here to find out what I've said about that in the past.

One more thing, you can also get skiers ear, same thing, just use foam sound plugs when you're skiing or snowboarding.

[Zooport]

I would be interested to know how many goofy foots have a worse right ear and vise versa.  You are obviously an exception, but most of the people I have talked to about it tell me that their condition supports what my doctor said.  He does many exostosis surgeries a year, sort of the exostosis guru around here, so he has seen a lot of them and probably has considerable knowledge beyond what you and I have.   By the way, this guy is the best.  Dr. Shohet in Newport Beach; highly recommended.  

[Zooport]

My left ear has a bit of growth and I'm a goofy I also have tinnitus which is really annoying.

I have tinnitus too.  I have to sleep with some sort of sound on or I go crazy. 

[Zooport]

I get mine looked at by my otolaryngologist every year. No signs yet...he's says it's unlikely since I started surfing late but it doesn't just happen to surfers...anyone on the water in the cold frequently is succeptable. I only have one ear that works so keeping it functioning is very important to me....being half deaf sucks bad enough...

I wouldn't worry about the surgery Jim, I've heard it's not too bad...can't be as bad as this.....they flapped my ear onto my cheeck and basically took an ice cream scoop to the inner works of my ear for this.... . My left ear now only goes in about 1/2" then stops.

That's you in the picture?  Wow, that's pretty bad.  They don't have to cut behind the ear anymore, just use micro stuff and go straight in. 

[stoneaxe]

LOL...that wasn't for exostosis....brain tumor....

The windward side is where the worst damage occurs. Also seen in folks that sail cold waters. Almost as common amongst folks that race small sailboats as with surfers. At least that's what my doc says. One of the best ear Doc's in the country and his research lab is all about bone growth and hearing loss caused by it. He's done a lot of exostosis surgeries. http://www.masseyeandear.org/about-us/meet-our-drs/bios/dr-mckenna/ . Did a friend of mine with the micro techniques. His recovery was even quicker. He was back surfing in 3 weeks. He let me get back on the water a month after that surgery....just flat water though. I was training for CCBC 2009 which was two months after the surgery.
BTW...for anyone in need of an ear Doc he is not only technically skilled, he's an awesome guy....really cares about you.

Despite the fact that I have no left ear hearing organs I still have terrible tinnitus on my left side. The tinnitus was one of the reasons I had things checked out. Had it before radiation, got worse after, still going strong after surgery. PITA but usually I don't really notice it...white noise now.

Take care of your ears. Can't imagine being deaf. Scares the hell out of me now. Like tube said...being single sided deaf sucks enough, conversations in social situations are next to impossible, background conversations, music, whatever...all gets jumbled into a low drone. I imagine some folks think I'm rude on the water.....unless I see someone saying something to me, hello or whatever, I usually don't hear it...probably a good thing sometimes....I'd probably hear F@#$ing KOOK! more often. I really miss hearing in stereo. Not just for music but because you can't tell what direction a noise is coming from...or at least not well.

[supdiscobay]

I have had several ruptured ear drums, from tournament water skiing and surfing. The worst one took three surgeries over 18 months, for one to take.  They cut the back of my ear and laid the ear onto my cheek as they grafted skin onto the ear drum.  I was shocked to see the photo of the cut behind the ear.  When they did mine they cut along the fold behind the ear.  Took awhile to heal, but I used ear plugs and a hood to stay in the water.

That is one crazy scar.