This past fall I took a surf trip to Barbados with five friends of mine. For 6-days straight we surfed beach breaks, point breaks, over coral reefs, and over rocks. We surfed little waves (2-foot faces), big waves (12-foot plus faces!), super glassy waves, semi glassy waves, hollow waves and cloud breaking waves. The funny thing is no matter where we surfed I always had one major concern on mind. I was not wiping out on a coral reef, or getting held under by a huge set wave, or even a shark attach; at a mere 13 degrees north of the equator it was, “How much sun am I getting?”
Experts tell us skin cancer is rapidly becoming the most common form of cancer and it is also the most preventable type. If you are like me, you grew up spending every free moment in the summertime in the sun. By age four I was fishing with my dad and by age 12- I was surfing with my older brother. My typical summer day started out by mowing a few yards in the neighborhood for some cash and by lunch time I was either in the water or on the water. Back then the only sunscreen I wore was what my parents wiped me down with before a day on the water.
By the time I hit my early teens it was up to me to keep up with applying the screen. I would typically wear it in the spring just till I got a good base coat tan and would not burn; then I would stop wearing it for the rest of the summer. Truth be told to this day I really do not like wearing sunscreen. I dislike the way it makes my skin feel greasy, hate the way it burns my eyes when I sweat or get in the water, and I can never keep up with re-applying. So if you are like me, getting a little older and more responsible, knowing you need to be protecting your skin from the sun, but hate wearing traditional sunscreen here are a few methods of avoiding too much exposure:
Limit Activity – This one never works for me, but I have to mention it, if you can stay out the sun during the hottest parts of the day, between 11 am and 4 pm you will limit your exposure during the suns most in