Major surfing medicine conference to come to Torquay

A WORLDWIDE medical association will bring the next in its series of conferences on surfing medicine to Torquay next year.

The four-day program of lectures, workshops and outdoor activities presented by Surfing Medicine International will feature leading specialists and inspirational speakers in surfers’ health, injury prevention, training, performance and ocean environment.

Now entering its eighth year, the World Conference and Expo on Surfing Medicine (WCSM) provides a scientific, evidence-based, platform for key stakeholders in modern surfing sports, making it a platform for sharing and learning with medical professionals, surfing industry and athletes, students, coaches and strength condition trainers, sport and environmental scientists, water safety experts and lifeguards.

Surfers may encounter several different types of health issues while riding waves around the globe, from drowning and major trauma to infectious diseases as well as out of the surf such as chronic pain, so the focus on day one of the WCSM will be on surfers’ health and injury prevention, with special focus on drowning, remote environment, first response and surf first aid, “Code Red” in shark attacks, concussion and head injury in surfers as well as UV-induced pathologies and mental health.

Professional surfing has seen a major change in terms of training, alimentation, preparation and development of athletes. The past five years has also seen a substantial amount of research on surfing performance, and the conference’s second day will be exercise physiology, nutrition, mental state and performance of surfer athletes, Olympic surfing and the artificial wave era.

Cognisant of arguably the greatest threat to continued human existence on this planet, the WCSM will devote its final day to the ocean environment, acknowledging the scientific consensus and the detrimental effect of increasing global ambient and water temperatures and diverse chemical, physical and biological pollution of marine environments.

There will also be discussion about established human behaviour and consumption patterns, and meaningful suggestions towards sustainability.

The World Conference and Expo on Surfing Medicine will be held at the RACV Torquay Resort from April 10-13, 2019. For more information, head to surfingmed.com.