Influence of practice time on surfing injuries

Abstract

Introduction: studying the influence of surfing on the prevalence of injuries may contribute to prevention. Objective: to analyze the influence of time practicing sports and the occurrence of previous surgery on the profile and prevalence of injuries caused by surfing. Methods: Sixty-six Brazilian surfers (26.16 ± 0.73 years old) participated in this study. Anthropometric data, physical activity level, surfing practice time and the prevalence of injuries (type of injury, anatomical region affected, and mechanism of injury) were evaluated. To assess which of the studied variables exerted significant influence on the mean number of injuries, a Poisson log-linear model was adjusted through R software (p < 0.05). Results: most surfers were classified as eutrophic (73%), very active (60.6%), had an average practice time of 10.1 ± 1 years, and were not members of a surfing federation (74%). It was also observed that 90.9% of participants reported injuries caused by surfing and 44.9% affected the lower limbs. The majority of these injuries affected the integumentary system (46.6%). The main mechanism of injury was impact with the board or seabed (40.4%). Furthermore, it was found that surfing federation members presented an average of 58.4% more injuries than non-members (p = 0.007). Surfers who had undergone previous surgeries showed an average number of injuries that was 56.9% higher than other surfers (p = 0.012). In addition, it was found that for each extra year of surfing, the average number of injuries increased by 2.5% (p = 0.0118). Conclusion: the average number of injuries increased with increment in time practicing the sport, previous surgery and membership in a surfing federation.

Epidemiology of Acute Injuries in Surfing: Type, Location, Mechanism, Severity, and Incidence: A Systematic Review

“…Injury is a risk with participation in all sports (recreationally and competitively), and surfing is no exception [5,6]. Uncontrolled and often unpredictable ocean environments present unique hazards to surfers; sand, coral reef and rock breaks, water depth, wave size and type, water temperature, presence of other surfers, and local marine animals all contribute to injury risk [5,[7][8][9]. Surfing equipment such as wetsuits, booties and gloves, although designed for thermoregulation and maintaining body heat, have indirectly also helped protect surfers from lacerations and contusions from rock and reef [9].…”

“…The invention of surfboard leashes has also helped protect surfers from being hit by others' surfboards during wipeouts however, presents new hazards to board riders from elastic recoil [6]. Advances in technology have made surfboards lighter and more maneuverable with changes to board shape and use of fins, allowing quicker changes in direction and aerial maneuvers to be incorporated into surf style [5][6][7]10]. To reduce injury occurrence and continue the progression of the sport, a thorough understanding of injury location, types and mechanisms is needed [11].…”

“…Information on injury type, location, severity and mechanism has been documented from the earliest study by Allen et al [12] who examined acute surfing injuries at Waikiki, Hawaii to more recent studies by Burgess et al [13], Dimmick et al [6], Hohn et al [14] and Inada et al [15] examining acute surfing injuries in Australia (New South Wales), Australia (Queensland), globally from WSL data and in Japan respectively. Various studies have provided data from a number of sources; online surveys, emergency departments (ED) and medical records have been used to collect primarily retrospective data [5][6][7][8][9][10][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Medical services at surfing competitions have also been used to collect prospective data, however, to our knowledge only two studies to date have been conducted so far [6,27].…”

“…To our knowledge only two studies have attempted to collate and synthesise some of the acute surfing injury data, Donosa and Cabral [28], and Nathanson [29]. While both studies summarised injury type, location and mechanism data from six and 11 studies respectively, several epidemiological studies were not included [6,7,[12][13][14][15]18,20,24,26] Furthermore, there have been numerous epidemiological studies published following the 2015 publication by Donosa [6,7,[13][14][15]18,20,24,26]. Therefore, an updated review of the literature is needed to gain a comprehensive understanding of acute surfing injuries around the world, between various populations (ages and competition levels), and through different data collection settings.…”

The Prevalence and Severity of External Auditory Exostosis in Young to Quadragenarian-Aged Warm-Water Surfers: A Preliminary Study

“…Given that surfing has been added as a new sport in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics [2] and the development of wave pools, the popularity of this aquatic activity is expected to increase dramatically over the coming years. There have been numerous studies (prospective, retrospective) that have investigated injuries (acute and/or chronic) in recreational and/or competitive surfers, with data attained from online surveys, emergency departments, and medical records [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”