MORE ON THE DARKER SIDE OF SURFING
1-30-08
BY CORKY CARROLL

A couple of months ago I started a little series, to be run from time to time when I am in the mood, of stories about the darker side of surfing. The irritating not so much fun part of the experience. We have covered such horrors as the dreaded nipple rash, rock kicking when you are looking at the waves and not where you are walking and the always amusing and extremely embarrassing unexpected sinus drain. Today we dive deeper into the virtually bottomless treasure trove of terrors that are constantly lurking in the surf shadows just waiting for the happy and unsuspecting surfer. Waiting to strike just when you thought everything was pink and life was perfect.

For today I thought I might tell you a few tales of one of the dangers common to locals here in our beautiful Orange County. This being our NOT friends, the stingrays. Stingrays are fine and dandy as long as one doesn’t sting you. If you have ever been hit by a ray then you know just how much NOT-fun the experience can be. It hurts. It hurts bad. I have been lucky to have only been hit one time in all of the zillion years that I have been surfing. It was at Bolsa Chica and was only about five years ago. I remember sitting in Lifeguard headquarters soaking my foot in scalding hot water wishing the pain would go away. There was a little girl, maybe ten or so, sitting next to me soaking her foot too. She was trying to hold back the tears and I was telling her not to cry and the hurt would go away soon. This would have been better if I wasn’t crying myself. Man that hurt. My pal David Stanfield took it the worst though. David is from Sunset Beach and part of the Stanfield family that includes two extremely beautiful sisters. The younger of the two is Kathy who I coveted soooooo much back at Huntington Beach High School. To no avail, she didn’t know I existed. She liked Robert August. See, there is another terror. When the chick you dig has eyes to the older surf dude with the beautiful name and light blue cashmere sweaters and a car. Humph. But anyway, back to David. David Stanfield was headed out for a surf one morning and stepped on a stingray and it nailed him good. He was hopping back in on the other foot when he hopped right onto another one and got hit even worse on the other foot. The only lucky thing for him was not getting hit again when he landed on his butt. That would not have been good at all. I did hear of a dude who was getting pounded by a wave and got rammed into the bottom face first and had the bad luck of hitting a stingray. Fortunate for him the tail nailed him on the shoulder and not in the face.

My favorite stingray story involves a dude from Seal Beach and took place way back when I was playing little league baseball. This must have been about seventh grade or somewhere around that time. We had a coach named Mr. Hodge and his son Dick Hodge was our third baseman. Dick was one of those kinda preppie kinda dudes. Later on in High School his dad gave him one of those M.G. sports cars with the spoke wheels and all that. Another cashmere sweater dude. Later he went on to U.S.C. I think. The frat boy kind.
We had a rule on the baseball team that you could not go surfing on a game day. I was always in trouble for breaking that one and was always getting grief from Mr. Hodge about putting surfing before the team. One day his perfect little boy Dick went surfing before a game. And guess what? He got hit by a stingray. He was surfing at where else but “Ray Bay” in Seal Beach. Ray Bay is the stingray capital of the world. It is where they go for stingray conventions and class reunions and stingray concerts and stuff. If your dad is the coach of the team and it is HIS rule to not go surfing on a game day, and this is a game day, the last place you would want to break the rule and surf is at Ray Bay. But, being the future M.G. driving cashmere sweater wearing college frat dude that Dick was, that is where he choose to surf. And wham!! There was a whole team of smiling little leaguers when they heard the news about Dick that day. I think I made the mistake of laughing out loud and Mr. Hodge stuck me out in right field for the whole game.

SURFING AND CYSTIC FIBROSIS
The Wave ~ 1-30-2008
By Corky Carroll

Lately I have been writing about different problems caused by surfing. Eyes, ears and skin are some of the primary danger zones from years of sun and wind and salt water exposure. But it has just been pointed out to me by Sean Collins and his Huntington Beach based Surfline.com surf-forecasting website that surfing can actually help in certain health issues. I know it is a huge help to my mental health because if I could not do it I would go crazy. O.K. shut up…. Crazier if you will. Besides that I have been made aware that Australian surfers have helped inspire a new way to treat the deadly genetic disease cystic fibrosis.
“Patients with cystic fibrosis, a rare disorder that damages the lungs, have reported feeling better after surfing,” says Mark Elkins, a researcher at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
“Surfers said their chests and sinuses felt clear and they coughed up much of the thick mucus that clogs their lungs. Doctors wondered why”, Elkins says. “Was it the exercise? Or was it the saltwater?”
According to Elkins Scientists have known for years that salt plays a key role in cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis, which afflicts about 30,000 Americans, is caused by a defect in a gene that controls the amount of salt and water that line the airways of the lungs. Without sufficient lubrication mucus builds up and blocks the airways and this provides a fertile home for bacteria.
“Doctors in Australia and the USA decided to test whether saltwater might replace that missing lubrication. They hoped the extra salt would draw water out of lung tissue onto the airway, providing a thin layer of liquid to ease mucus out of the lung,” says Richard Boucher, who directs the cystic fibrosis center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and led the American study.
Researchers found that inhaling an intensely salty solution, almost twice as salty as the Atlantic Ocean, improved patients' lung function and slowed the progression of the disease. This is according to articles published in New England Journal of Medicine. Australian doctors found that 41% of those who received the treatment avoided serious complications such as weight loss, coughing up blood or a dangerous infection as compared with 16% of the other patients. The solutions helped remove mucus from the lung for at least eight hours, according to the UNC study of 24 patients, also published in the journal.

In May of last year Ambry Genetics teamed up with Jamie O’Brian and the Newport Surf Camp to provide “A Breath of Fresh Air.” This was a free surf clinic for children with CF to help spread the word about this natural and fun way to combine exercise and relief from respiratory symptoms. Approximately 10 children received individual instruction from experts including international surfing star Jamie O'Brien and local pros Brad Ettinger and Cordell Miller. Jamie O'Brien, of Hawaii, is a two-time Pipeline Monster Pro Champion and 2004 Pipeline Master. West Surfing Products is donated wetsuits to the participants, courtesy of Paul Manners.

So see folks, a day of surfing is always better than a day at work and it also might be healthier than we thought. And here we are at the beginning of a new year and this is where WE come in. Anybody out there that might want to get involved with helping out this great program this spring, and I know that there must be a bunch of you, please get in touch with Sean Collins at Surfline.com and he will aim you in the right direction as to how you can help out. Surfing instructors, donations, anything.

When it comes to helping out kids who are sick, especially with a potentially deadly condition, it’s a no brainer. Years ago my late surf pal “Pecos Mike” Skalarski got me involved with visiting sick surfer kids at the Children’s Hospital in Orange. The first time I went it melted me. I was not prepared to see what I saw. It is awful when anybody is deathly sick for sure. But when it is a little boy or girl it just breaks your heart. Getting involved helping out these kids with CF would be a great way to give a little thank you that YOU can get up and go surfing and enjoy your life. I know that every day when I paddle out for what always could be my last session I am so grateful to be healthy and alive. These kids don’t have that luxury.