THE SURF STRONG PILOT RISK OF INJURY SCREENING TOOL
Helping Physiotherapists to keep surfers surfing!!!
​How to complete this screening tool:
Read the 'about this screening tool' section below.
Continue below to gain an understanding of the growing need for this tool and what it hopes to offer.
Access the tab in the menu bar above labelled 'The Screening Tool' to download the complete screening tool and view a summary of its contents on this page.
Click on the 'Surfing Injuries' tab in the menu bar to delve into which acute injuries are most prevalent in surfing and the mechanism for each of these injuries.
Access the 'Clinical Reasoning' tab for the evidence behind this injury prevention tool and why each component was included.
Access the 'Physical Assessment Guide' to read through how to conduct the tests effectively.
Review the 'Recommendations' tab to help inform your interventions based on findings from this screening tool.
Click on the 'References' tab to refer to all of the literature used to produce the Surf Strong pilot risk of injury screening tool.
ABOUT THIS SCREENING TOOL
This screening tool has been developed to ensure that all Physiotherapists have equal access to reliable and evidence based screening to determine a surfer's risk of injury. This aims to ultimately prevent injuries in surfers and keep them surfing for longer! Surfing injuries can be difficult to understand due to the various risk factors which invariably differ from land based sports, thus this website also seeks to break down the barrier that often exists between Physiotherapists and their surfing patient's, aiding Physiotherapists by elucidating both the common mechanisms of injury and factors that predispose surfers to injury which are commonly misunderstood or unknown to Physiotherapists.
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For the time being, this screening tool focuses solely on the most prevalent acute injuries, these being MCL and ACL injuries, lateral ankle sprains and shoulder rotator cuff tears. In the near future however I hope to develop a more comprehensive list of acute and chronic surfing injuries to the screening tool and website to further aid Physiotherapists in preventing more injuries in surfers.
WHY DEVELOP A RISK OF INJURY SCREENING PROTOCOL FOR SURFERS?
This pilot risk of injury screening tool is greatly needed in the sport of surfing, not only for surfing athletes but recreational surfers as well. Unlike many other mainstream sports, it is only recently that surfing professionals have adopted the help of Physiotherapists and other health professionals to implement appropriate strength and conditioning programs to improve their surfing performance. In line with this, the literature behind surfing and musculoskeletal injuries is only just starting to be uncovered, and a standardised tool to screen surfers for injury and provide injury prevention recommendations has not yet been created. Injury prevention is thus rarely practised, especially amongst recreational surfers.
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Surfers are susceptible to many injuries, particularly around the shoulder, knee and ankle. Understanding the mechanism of these injuries can be difficult for those who don’t surf due to the complex nature of the sport and how the surfer and their equipment interact with the wave and external forces throughout different manoeuvres completed.
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Within the current literature looking at musculoskeletal injuries in surfers, there has been discussion around the need for such a screening tool, such as the suggestion made by Furness et al (2015) who stated a risk of injury screening tool ought to be developed for surfers to reduce incidence of injury with an effective exercise program. This is further substantiated outside of the surfing literature by Lauersen, Bertelsen and Anderson (2014) who found that strengthening and proprioception training could be effective in reducing both acute and chronic sporting injuries.
The need for this tool is further expedited by the increasing rate of musculoskeletal injuries and impairments in surfers over recent years due to the increased skill level of surfer’s particularly with the rapid innovations in aerial manoeuvres as well as in equipment (Hohn, Robinson, Merriman, Parrish & Kramer, 2018), and such progressions are only expected to continue with the advent of surfing into the 2020 Olympic Games, bringing a new level of legitimacy and professionalism to the sport.
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The purpose of this risk of injury screening tool is to identify a surfers’ predisposition to injury which has not yet taken place. This is paramount to recreational and competitive surfers alike as repetitive movement patterns over long periods can exacerbate asymmetries in strength and tightness and alter biomechanics placing the surfer at greater risk of injury. By correcting these imbalances, the surfers’ risk will be reduced, and they will be able to catch and ride waves for longer.
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As this tool is aimed at preventing surfers from becoming injured before injury occurs, this tool would be suitable for state and national surfing organisations such as Surfing Australia and Surfing Victoria, local surfing clubs such as Torquay Board riders, the World Surf League (WSL) as well as at Physiotherapy clinics who can provide this screening for recreational surfers.