I thought I would share my experiences regarding Surfers Ear.
I am 45 yrs old surfer who has been surfing for 33 years. I also taught surfing for 15 years with Surfing WA.I had my first encounter with Surfers Ear roughly when I was 22/23. The feeling was like someone jabbing something in my ear. Went to the doctors and he told me I had surfers ear. He then told me I had 3 bony growths in my left ear (95% blocked) and 2 bony growths (called exostoses - 80% blocked) in my right ear. He prescribed sofradex (antibiotic drops) to clear up the infection that had resulted from water getting trapped in my ear.There are a couple of things at play when you get an infected ear.
Surfers Ear is a result of cold water and cold air exposure in the ear canal. The further you live from the equator the greater you are at risk of bony growths occurring in your ears. The bony growths (exostoses) are the result of your body trying to protect your ear from the cold and hence the bony growths. You can google Surfers Ear and there is enough documentation out there.I am writing this post to give a better understanding for the sufferer as there is much speculation about treatments etc.
After my first episode, the doctor prescribed drops, the infection cleared up and I went back to being able to hear. Of course some years later, the infection occurred again and down through the years, the frequency of infection has increased. The real reason for infection is not usually the bony growths (although with time they slowly close over the ear canal), it is usually self inflicted as people try all manner of things to remove wax and sand from there ears.
WARNING: Never and I mean NEVER stick your finger, ear bud or anything in your ear, even if it has water in it. Your best chance to prevent infection is to let nature take course. The ear produces wax which will help remove objects (sand etc.) from your ears. The reason most people have problems is that when you shove something in your ear it breaks the surface of the skin causing infection, which further causes blockage to the ear. Go to the doctors and have your ear syringed which should help. In my later years my doctor flatly refused to syringe my ears any more as invariably forcing water in there might mean it wont come out.
Seriously if you have any problem, leave the ear alone and let nature take its course, even if you have water trapped it will come out if you dont play with it. Anyhow back to the time line. I think after 2 or 3 visits to the doctors for drops to stop infection , he increasingly suggested surgery as the only option. At the time, I don't think anyone had had it (surgery) and I had been for appts but somehow never gotten through to the surgery. Also, back in those days they used to cut the whole ear off and sew it on afterwards. You'll be glad to know the post operative recovery is significantly shorter now. Yeah and I was really trying to avoid surgery as I had some stupid notion that if I waited long enough they would have a laser that woudl do it in no time.
Antibiotic Drops I have used - spelling might be incorrect
Sofradex -
Otodex
Ciproxin - Steriods inc
Kenacomb - Steriods inc.
Nemdyn - Ointment for Fungal infection
*Steriods are for more serious infection
My advice for Surfers: It will probably take about 8-10 years of serious surfing to reach the point where you need surgery. Given my love for surfing and my choice of vocation as surf coaching, I can tell you I have had so many problems. Eventually when I was about 30, I began to wear docs pro plugs which you can buy from most surf shops which are great and you can still hear to a reasonable degree. The downside is they can let water in if you fall forwards (or say you body surf and the water rushes to the front). If you have significant problems the only solution I found is to use Mack's aqua plugs. Here's a link... www.macksearplugs.com/product/aqua-block-ear-plugs/ You can buy these at alot of the chemists and sometimes surf shops as well. There $5 a pack. I have had massive success with these ( I have tried everthing else, bluetack included). Water does not get in and I have used them in reasonable size surf and they have not come out. Also, they dont annoy you like the strap of teh docs pro plugs. Also, time to wear hoods to aid in keeping the head warm and preventing the onset of Surfers Ear.
In regards to Aqua Ear and Vinegar mixtures. I have had Zero (O) results with anything like this. Sticking any kind of solution in my ear only exacerbated any problems I had. The ear is resilient and if you let it do its job, it should free a pathway. This is just my opinion, but I stress that anything I tried made problems worse and the only thing that gave me results was leaving the ear alone (sometimes I'd have water in there for days) and for infected cases use prescribed drops. Ask anyone that has had surfers ear problems for any reasonable time and they will all tell you to "LEAVE YOUR EAR ALONE. DONT PLAY WITH IT!"
Side Note: Discovered that when you are in the tropics/sub tropics you can also get fungal growth in you ears from coral polyps I believe (not sure on this). My doc prescribed Nemydn which is an antifugal ointment. So if you're in Bali, you may need to flush your ear canal with hot water and I think an alcohol/peroxide solution will probably kill the fungus. If someone can comment to this would be great. Although I dont recommend putting anthing that is liquid based in a seriously closed canal.
Fast forward 23 odd years and I have finally had surgery on both ears thank to our wonderful public health system and the good people at Charley Gardiners Hospita. The last 3 years have been particularly bad for me culminating in me spending about 50 % of the last 3 years deaf in my left ear. More recently while I was waiting for surgery, I damn near went crazy due to constant infection and deafness. When you have chronic surfers ear, you dont realise how much you tune out of conversation. I guess it becomes increasingly difficult to separate sounds and invariably you begin to want to be alone more often or in quieter surrounds. This result in a massive impact on my mental health and the last year was an extremely trying time. I wont go into this aspect too much, but when you become increasingly deaf it leave you at the mercy of your own internal conversations. Not healthy some times
.SURGERY.
After much googleing, you can understand the basic mechanics of the surfers ear surgery. You will probably find out that some surgeons drill and very few use chisels (over in US). The chiselling sounded interesting as it tending to have shorter recovery time and less damage to hearing from the drills. There is a mixed feeling about this online but as I don't have money, I was at the mercy of the public health system here in Perth, Western Australia. I figured that my doctor would use a drill, but I dont think I ever got to actually meet him before surgery or acquire more information as I was resigned to going no matter what, so I wasn't interested in the specifics.
So the day of surgery, you fast, hit the hospital, around lunch early arvo they put you under and perform surgery and you wake up around 4pm. I felt a bit of pain, some in the jaw which lasted for a few weeks. Stayed overnight as you have been under anaesthetics and I was having quite a bit of vertigo and needed to sit up. Somewhere in early morning I felt better and managed to sleep. Got some brekky in the morning and left. All good. The surgery involves removing and preserving the skin from the ear, removing exostoses and carefully re purposing the skin back into the ear. My surgeon made a small incision in the front of my ear which had stitches. Now here's me thinking they still had to cut you ear off and drill it. Turns out they only made a small incision on the front but my doctor explains to me later that he uses a chisel and a small polishing drill to remove the bone. After the surgery the doctors put a antibiotic circular packing that holds the skin out to the ear canal and then a long thin cloth packing to keep it all in.
Fast forward 10 days and the doc removes the bandage and some of the packing and I can hear. I am very happy and immediately turn my stereo up full bore for about 4 hours and listen to music. About 4 days later the antibiotic package has bio degraded a bit and my ear is blocked again but about a week later the doc cleans the rest out and I'm good to go. Turnaround so far 3 weeks. Off to Bali, I stay out of the water for a week (total 4 weeks) pop a plug in my ear and go surfing. 2 weeks later I ditch the plugs all good. First time in years I have surfed without ear plugs, what a treat!My first surgery was in May 2013 and my second surgery in October 2013. The second surgery was even better than the first and I required almost no pain killers for recovery. Amazing! Good work doc.If you have some health care, great! I think one of my friends with top health care had his done within about a month. I was on the public health system and the turnaround was about 9 months from initial consult with local GP. Also, that was with me being on the fast track due to the severity of my exostoses. That's about as fast as it will ever happen on public system, so for average problems its gonna take years to get to surgery.
Advice from a long time sufferer...
! Dont stick fingers or anything in your ears
! Dont use home remedy drops somebody says works in your ear
! Get a doctor to give you some drops, keep some handy all the time
! Get surgery sooner rather than later, I left it too long
Here is the details of the Doctor from Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital who did my surgery at Osborne Park Hospital. It think from the literature there are a number of capable doctors in Perth performing these surgeries.They have a great pamphlet on the surgery but I cant find it online. I will email this psot link to the doctor and see if he can find it somewhere.
research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/peter-friedland
drpeterfriedland.com.au/
If you want to ask me any questions, feel free, I wont check this all the time so my email is lifestylemanoz@gmail.com if you need advice.
Rusty
Great advice Rusty,
I went to a specialist a few months ago as I also have the same problem and my growths are 80% left ear and 90% right ear.
The specialist checked my hearing and it was ok so he suggested I leave it till I have hearing problems or they reach around 95% closure as once they do the op and you choose to still enjoy your water sports they can grow back.
His suggestion was good quality ear plugs after the op to try and prevent re growth.
I am sure there are plenty of us water lovers out there with this problem but do not know about it so once again thanks for posting 
Oh yeah check out these shockers of post operation stiches and staples. They can operate from the front of the ear these days but some doctors still choose to do this to you... Especially if your on the public waiting list .... Have a nice day
Misch
I prefer these www.macksearplugs.com/product/pillow-soft-silicone-earplugs/
They do not go in your ear canal, so they just cover it and they do not affect your balance. I started using them, because I got quite some ear infections, but I don't use them when I use beanie, because when the wind doesn't blow directly in my ears it's OK.
Hmmm this stuff gets me worried...does wearing a helmet that covers the ear help? Might invest in some of those macks ear plugs. How is the hearing when using them?
-Kevin
Hearing is very quiet :D But I wore them at some concerts, for a test and it was still good hearing and clearer sound, but it's hard to talk to a person wearing them.
I invested in ear covering helmet, I thing the main reason for ear issues is water in your ear + wind.
Ive had problems with my ears since i was a kid. In the past few years ive had both ear drums grafted to help restore some hearing loss (1 was messed up from an almighty catapult, the other was a result of many infections).
I find blutack to be the best ear plugs. Cheap, hygienic (throw away after each session) and readily available.
This past summer ive stopped using blue tack and swapped it for one of those neoprene headbands u see kids wearing at the local pool. It doubles up nicely as a hair band. Looks dorky so i throw an equally dorky windsurfing hat complete with chin strap to hide it..
Look after ur hearing... its not always possible to get it all back!
I'm currently using one of those helmets with ear covers. What about those wetsuit hoods/beanie? Do those provide any protection as they block the wind pretty well?
Not saying the topic of this thread isn't extremely valid but this is clearly an advertisement...Misch is clearly owner of the website and selling the plugs, and the first post was from a user with no previous posts!
Why do they cost $60? I frequently lose ear plugs, but the ones I buy are Zoggs which are $5 a set... so it doesn't bother me.
Al
