The small areas that take the whole load
Back of the neck, ears, lips, scalp and the strip of face a hood does not reach. This environment concentrates damage on a handful of places, and they are the places people skip.
The back of the neck, and why it is the first thing to go
One small area, presented to the sky in every posture this sport involves, abraded by a collar and forgotten by everybody. Why it is the most reliably damaged skin in surfing.
Exposed ground · 12 min readEars: the smallest area in the sport with the worst record
The tops of the ears face directly upward, stick out from the head, are missed by almost every cap and are skipped by almost every application. A small area with a long history.
Exposed ground · 12 min readLips: wet, licked, salted and forgotten on every single session
Lips receive light from above and reflected from below, have no protection of their own, and are the hardest surface on the body to keep anything on. Why they are a category of their own.
Exposed ground · 12 min readThe scalp, the parting, thinning hair and shaved heads
Hair is partial cover at best, and a wet parting is a line of directly exposed skin at the highest point of the body. What changes when there is less hair, or none.
Exposed ground · 12 min readThe face inside a hood: the strip that is exposed on every session
Even in full winter kit there is an oval of face left out, and in summer it is most of your head. What is actually exposed, and what to do about the areas within it.
Exposed ground · 13 min readThe tide line
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