The geometry of an ear
An ear is a thin projection standing away from the side of the head, with its upper rim angled upward. That shape does two unhelpful things.
It presents an upward facing surface with nothing above it. The helix, the top rim, is about as directly exposed to the sky as any skin on your body, and unlike the top of your head it is not covered by hair.
And it projects, so it is not shaded by the head itself. The side of your face gets some shading from your brow and the angle of your head. The outer ear does not.
Add the fact that in surf you are also receiving reflected light from the water, described in reflection off water, and the underside of the ear and the skin just in front of and behind it are also getting light. The ear is exposed from more directions than almost anything else on you.
Why everybody misses them
Three reasons, all behavioural.
They are small. When you are applying something on a windy beach with a session waiting for you, the large obvious areas get done and the small fiddly ones do not. Ears take five seconds and almost nobody spends them.
They are awkward. Getting anything onto the rim of an ear, and behind it, requires a bit of attention and a finger rather than a palm.
They are out of sight. You cannot see your own ears. Like the back of the neck, there is no feedback loop until it hurts.
And then there is the fourth reason, which is that nobody thinks of ears as a sun exposure area at all, despite the fact that anyone who has surfed for years knows exactly what a burned ear rim feels like.
Most headwear does not cover them
This is the piece worth checking on your own kit tonight.
A standard peaked cap leaves the ears completely exposed. It shades the face and the crown and does nothing at all for the ears. If your entire sun strategy for your head is a cap, your ears are getting nothing.
Neoprene hoods do cover them, completely, which is why the ears of a winter surfer are in better condition than the ears of a summer one. Neoprene beanies often cover them, depending on the cut. Some water caps have side coverage and some do not.
The action is simply to look at the item you actually wear and see whether the tops of your ears are inside it or outside it. Most people have never checked, and are surprised when they do. See hoods, caps and headwear.
| Headwear | Crown | Ears | Back of neck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard peaked cap | Yes | No | No |
| Water cap with chin strap | Yes | Sometimes, check it | Only with a rear flap |
| Legionnaire style water cap | Yes | Usually | Yes |
| Neoprene beanie | Yes | Usually | Partly |
| Neoprene hood | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nothing | No | No | No |
Working framework of this manual. It is not a measurement, it is not drawn from any study, and it carries no numbers we cannot source.
Putting them in the routine
If your headwear does not cover them, the answer is to make the ears a named step rather than a hoped for one.
The way to do that is to give yourself a fixed order and always follow it: forehead, nose, cheeks, then ears, then under the chin and jaw, then the lips, then the back of the neck. Naming the sequence is what makes the small areas happen, because a routine that runs on attention will always drop the fiddly items when you are in a hurry.
Do the whole rim, front and back, and the skin immediately in front of the ear where the hairline runs. And do it before the wetsuit and before the walk down, while your hands are dry. See application timing and coverage.
A different ear problem, briefly
Worth mentioning because the confusion is common. Cold water surfers talk a great deal about ear problems, and they are usually talking about a bone growth in the ear canal associated with repeated cold water and wind exposure, or about infections and blocked ears. Those are internal ear problems, they are a genuine clinical subject, and they have nothing to do with ultraviolet.
This article is about the skin on the outside of the ear, which is a completely separate matter. If you have ear pain, hearing changes, repeated infections or anything internal, that is a GP appointment and not something to read about on a surf website.
Where the skin question goes
The outer ear is an area that accumulates exposure across an outdoor life, in common with the back of the neck, the nose and the scalp. That is a reason to cover it consistently rather than a reason to worry.
If you have a mark, a rough patch, a sore that scabs and returns, or anything on your ear that is changing or not healing, book a GP appointment. This manual does not describe, assess or interpret anything on your skin, and it would be wrong to try. The NHS and the British Association of Dermatologists are the right starting points, and a GP is the right destination.
What to take away
The tops of the ears face the sky, project away from any shading, are left out by most caps and are skipped by almost every application. They are small enough to ignore and exposed enough to matter.
Check whether your headwear actually covers them. If it does not, make the ears a named step in a fixed application order rather than something you hope to remember.