The Endless Summer Ends : Longtime Surfers Find There’s a Medical Price to Pay for the Sport’s Lifestyle

Johnny Fain was Malibu’s golden boy of surfing in the late 1960s. Known for an aggressive surfing style of quick, slashing turns and “hang-ten” riding (10 toes over the nose of the board), Fain became one of the world’s top surfers, and was rewarded with endorsements and years of travel on the pro-surf tour.

The only child of “Lassie” screenwriter Jeanne Bartlett, Fain grew up in Malibu Colony and parlayed his blond good looks and surfing prowess into small movie and stunt parts in such surf cult classics as “Muscle Beach Party,” “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini” and “Beach Blanket Bingo.”

But during years of a rough-and-tumble surfer lifestyle and prolonged exposure to the natural elements, Fain also racked up a litany of surfing-related ailments.

More than a dozen cancerous and precancerous skin lesions and moles have been removed from his face and body. He has endured three ear operations and four surgeries to remove growths from his eyes, and hundreds of stitches from surfboard collisions. And now a recent operation to repair a hip eroded from years of battering has left Fain on crutches.

The great surfer reluctantly admits he has been temporarily beached.

“You have to believe you’re invincible to reach a high level of surf expertise,” said Fain, 50. “You have to go beyond what a normal person thinks of as a human limit. I am paying a price for that attitude.”

So, too, are many other surfers, enthusiasts and their doctors say.

The sport of surfing, with an estimated half-million Southern California devotees, has always radiated images of fun and good health, of bronzed bodies, youthful good looks and pristine beaches. But as the baby-boomer innovators of the sport grow older, some of them say a troublesome array of maladies has emerged.

“As opposed to the blunt trauma of a football injury, many surfers suffer from a series of cumulative ailments,” said Steve Hoch, editor of Surfer magazine, one of the sport’s leading journals. Hoch, 38, who has been surfing for more than 20 years, has suffered from chronic back, ear and nasal problems. “It’s almost death from a thousand cuts. Though our engines are still humming, our shells are a little nicked.”

County officials say it is difficult to determine the extent of surfer illnesses and ailments, which enthusiasts attribute to both man-made and natural elements.

“We don’t have such a file,” said Dr. Laurene Mascola, chief of the acute communicable disease control unit of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. “Some surfers don’t go to a doctor, and if they did, doctors have an abysmal rate of reporting routine diseases and illnesses. We would really need a special study and we don’t have the money.”

In general, surfers tend to be a fit bunch with strong muscles and lungs derived from hours of grueling paddling against the tides.

Still, many surfers and the doctors who treat them say plenty of anecdotal evidence attests to the sport’s health consequences.

Middle-aged surfers in particular say they must cope with a growing history of skin ulcers, reef cuts, lacerations from surfboard fins and surfer knots and craters--bumps and cuts slow to heal from constant paddling and water exposure.

In December, San Francisco physician Mark Renneker co-authored a book, entitled “Sick Surfers,” that outlines a comprehensive list of surfer maladies. Renneker founded the Surfer’s Medical Assn. in 1986, a Northern California-based international organization of roughly 700 members, including 400 medical professionals, who are dedicated to improving the health of surfers.

Renneker has chronicled such surfer ailments as chronic neck and back problems, fungal infections from wet suits, fatty growths on the rib cage from paddling and so-called “ice-cream headaches”--migraines brought on by dunking under huge waves in frigid water.

The book also attempts to answer surfer queries about angioedema--the swelling of the extremities in cold water--and even addresses the consequences of ingesting surf wax, which is used to improve the grip on the boards.

One of the most common maladies, however, is “surfers’ ear,” or exostosis.

Mostly afflicting cold-water surfers, it is caused when excess water in the ear canal evaporates in windy conditions and chills the ear. The body responds by growing extra bone in the ear canal, obstructing hearing.

Ear specialists in seaside communities are well aware of the affliction, which is treated by drilling away the excess bone.

“I must get two to three surfers a month who have to have their ears drilled out with a high-speed diamond burr--it’s very painful,” said Dr. Justin MacCarthy, a partner in a Pacific Palisades practice. “I try to tell them to wear ear plugs, but they won’t do it. They say it affects their sense of balance.”

Surfers have their own descriptions of the pain of the operation and its aftermath. “It’s like a cherry bomb going off inside your head, but you’re still living,” Fain said.

Exposure to the sun has also taken a toll.

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Many dermatologists are reporting increased cases of basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, as well as malignant melanoma. They warn that prolonged exposure to the sun can be dangerous as surfers age.

“Each decade of a life in the sun increases the incidents of skin cancer,” said Dr. Billie Phelps, a Westside dermatologist who has treated many lifeguards and surfers.

Veteran surfers also suffer from pterygiums, a tissue growth over the cornea of the eye caused by excessive exposure to wind and ultraviolet light.

“Sunlight bouncing off the water makes people such as surfers and sailors more susceptible,” said Dr. Troy Elander, a West Los Angeles ophthalmologist. “I’ve seen dozens of surfers over the years with the problem. Without wearing sunglasses you’re at an increased risk.”

John Hearne, 45-year-old regional director of the Surfer Foundation, a nonprofit environmental organization, now has cataracts on both eyes from sun exposure. The longtime surfer says the vision in his right eye is about 70%, and declining fast. (His other eye is fine).

“I’ve tried to wear ski-glasses with a leash, but its a hassle in big surf when you’re duck-diving under waves,” he said. “I tell my kids to always wear their sunglasses as much as possible and to stay out of the midday sun.”

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Aside from infirmities caused by the natural elements, many veteran Los Angeles-area surfers believe that water pollution is eclipsing the sunny elements of the sport.

Amid the uncertainty in the scientific world over whether toxins in Santa Monica Bay are making people sick, surfers believe they are unwittingly helping to establish a link between the water and certain illnesses.

“I feel like we’re the canaries in the coal mine--we’ve got this young, healthy group of people that keeps getting sick,” said David Saltman, former executive director of the Surfrider Foundation. “It’s a shame we’re using our youth as front-line guinea pigs, in some sort of bizarre test to measure a deteriorating environment.”

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Rainwater washes large amounts of untreated sewage, trash, debris, animal waste, pesticides, motor oil and other substances along a web of concrete rivers and storm drains that empty into Santa Monica Bay. In August, 1993, the American Oceans Campaign, a nonprofit environmental group, completed a two-year study that identified 160 toxic chemicals flowing into the bay from Los Angeles streets.

Mark Gold, a staff scientist at the environmental group Heal the Bay, says his organization has received extensive anecdotal evidence from Santa Monica Bay surfers suffering from a wide range of illnesses that could be related to the pollution, such as stomach flu, skin rashes (surfer’s itch), sinus and ear infections.

The level of pollution increases dramatically after storms--bad news for surfers since that is when the waves are best.

And the prime surfing spots are near storm drains, which dump sediment onto a series of points, reefs, and beach breaks. Better shaped waves are produced as swells peel over the buildup.

“You’re basically out there surfing these big beautiful waves that look like chocolate milk,” Hearne said.

To many medical experts, storm surfing is a horrific combination.

“When diving under a big wave you’re getting worked over pretty good,” said Dr. Gordon LaBedz, a member of the Surfer’s Medical Assn. and a Seal Beach resident. “Bacteria-laden water is being forced into your sinuses. (It) sits in little hollow areas of your skull, which if it runs down, can cause an upper respiratory infection.”

Their heads, many veteran surfers say, act like remarkable sponges.

“I remember working in the afternoon as a busboy, hours after I’d gotten out of the water,” Hoch said. “It was a formal affair and as I bent over to serve someone, out of my nose rushed all this water. There’s nothing you can do. You know it’s coming and there it is.”

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Many veteran surfers agree one of the most unhealthy places to surf has been Malibu’s Surfrider Beach, considered among the best surfing spots in the world.

Excellent waves are produced when the swells hit a curving line of large cobblestones hugging the contour of the beach.

But the beach’s geology may be its undoing. The cobblestones come from nearby bacteria-laden Malibu Creek, which flushes out through the Malibu Lagoon. Upstream is the Tapia Water Reclamation Center, which dumps almost 2 million gallons a day of treated effluent into the creek and up to 7 million gallons on rainy days. The creek also picks up bacteria from septic tank runoff, animal waste and refuse from picnickers.

Veteran surfers say that after years of riding the waves there, many have come down with a range of ailments they blame on the water pollution, although doctors cannot say for sure.

“Since surfing there in the early ‘80s, I’ve experienced a lot of respiratory problems, sinus problems, and I keep cycling in and out of diarrhea,” said 44 year-old Joe Sanders, a member of the Malibu Surfing Assn., a recreational and environmental club. “I’ve heard a lot from other people that parallels my experience.”

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In 1989, one of Sanders’ surfing pals, Jeff Estep, said he came down with hepatitis A, shortly after surfing at Malibu. He said his physician told him “it was quite possible” he contracted the illness from the ocean water.

“I remember the bad smell and taste of the water that day,” Estep said. “I was bedridden for nearly two months. My urine was like Coca-Cola, my stool was like white glue and my eyes were yellow. Every surfer should get a gamma globulin shot before going out there.” The shot boosts the immune system.

A more extreme and controversial case involves surfer Eric Villanueva, 22. In May, 1992, Villanueva came down with flu-like symptoms after surfing near Malibu Lagoon in the wake of a storm. Within a month he had congestive heart failure, and two months later he received a heart transplant.

Doctors found high levels of antibodies in Villanueva’s blood caused by the coxsackie B virus,a strain found in human feces that can attack and weaken the heart. Public studies have located coxsackie B in the Malibu Lagoon.

“If you go out there after the rains, or after the berm is breached, you’re gambling with your life,” said Villanueva, who had to have a second transplant 11 months after the first one due to complications.

“I am 99% sure I caught the virus (near the Malibu Lagoon),” Villanueva said. “I can’t think where else I got it--I’m not in the habit of licking toilet bowls.”

But experts cannot say for sure where he contracted the illness.

“It’s possible that someone could get the virus while surfing in the bay,” said Dr. Michele Hamilton, co-director of the UCLA cardiomyopathy program, which is treating Villanueva. “However, this is a common virus, with many avenues. It could have been poor hygiene, family contact or a restaurant.”

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Many surfers are aware of the problems associated with the sport, but addiction to the waves overrides their concerns.

“I remember the 1990 Huntington Beach oil spill,” Gold said. “The waves were a perfect two to four feet, and guys were out there surfing the slick. Surfers will do anything to catch a good wave.”

Even after Estep got sick with hepatitis, he remembers going surfing with his sons and walking past a sign warning of possible unsafe water posted on a Malibu beach. “I told my boys to check for any open wounds, and to just spit a lot, keep spitting. Then out we went.” County officials recommend staying out of the water when such signs are displayed.

Hoch uses cosmic terms to theorize why surfers will travel to distant islands, miles from medical care, risking life and limb to ride the perfect wave.

“Waves are the unifying constants of the universe, they’re everywhere--sound waves, light waves moving across many mediums,” Hoch said. “Most waves are going at least 700 m.p.h., but only ocean waves are moving at a speed humans can ride, really tap into. The waves also travel through a beautiful medium--the ocean. There’s something about all that that brings people back over and over.”

Johnny Fain regularly and painfully swims a mile in the Pepperdine University swimming pool to rehabilitate his hip--and get ready for his inevitable return to the surf.

“I’m a gladiator,” he said. “I’ll be back out there within eight months.”