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Surfer’s ear is the one thing in this sport that creeps up on you without ever announcing itself. No pain, no warning, nothing to notice. Then one day you’re twenty years in, your ear won’t drain properly after a session, and a doctor tells you the canal has closed over.
The good news is that it’s almost entirely preventable, and the gear that prevents it costs less than a pair of fins. Here’s what it actually is, why bodysurfers cop it worse than most, and what to put in your ears.
Quick disclaimer, because this one matters: I’m a bodysurfer, not a doctor. Everything medical below comes from published sources, linked so you can read them yourself. If your ears are already giving you grief, stop reading and go see a GP or an ENT.
What Surfer’s Ear Actually Is
The proper name is external auditory exostosis. Repeated exposure to cold water and wind irritates the ear canal, and the body responds by laying down new bone around it. Do that for enough years and the canal narrows.
It’s slow. It’s painless. And according to the clinical review published on NCBI, it doesn’t reverse on its own. Bone that’s grown stays grown unless a surgeon removes it.
The numbers are worth sitting with. In the general population, exostosis shows up in about 6 people per 1,000. Among surfers, studies put it somewhere between 26% and 73%. Male surfers with twenty years in the water have roughly a 50% chance of significant canal blockage, and each additional year of cold water exposure raises the risk by around 12%.
That last figure is the one that should get your attention. It compounds. Every season you surf without protection adds to a total you can’t subtract from later.
The temperature that matters
Water below 19°C, or about 66°F, is where risk climbs sharply. Stanford Health Care puts the threshold in the same place and recommends silicone earplugs or a neoprene hood for anyone regularly in water that cold.
Here’s where I have to be honest about my own situation. I surf South East Queensland, where the water sits above that threshold most of the year. On the numbers alone I’m lower risk than a bloke surfing Victoria or Northern California.
I still wear plugs. Two reasons. Wind chill contributes to exostosis even in water above the threshold, which the clinical literature is clear about. And warm water down here is a summer thing, not a year-round thing.
Why Bodysurfers Get More Exposure Than Board Surfers
Nearly every article about surfer’s ear is written for board surfers. That’s a problem, because the exposure profile is genuinely different and it works against us.
Think about how a board surfer spends a session. Most of it is sitting upright on a board with their head well clear of the water, waiting. The actual submersion is a fraction of the time out there, concentrated into paddling, duck diving and wipeouts.
Now think about how bodysurfing works. You have nothing to sit on. You tread water in the lineup with your head at surface level, you swim between waves, and every ride puts your head in the water rather than above it. Then you duck dive through the sets, without a board to help.
Add it up and a bodysurfer gets substantially more water in the ear canal per hour than a board surfer at the same beach on the same day. Nobody has studied this specifically, so I’m reasoning from how the sport works rather than citing a paper. But the mechanism is straightforward, and it means the standard advice probably understates our risk rather than overstating it.
The Best Ear Plugs to Prevent Surfer’s Ear
The honest test for a surf earplug is whether you’ll actually wear it. A plug that seals perfectly and sits in a drawer protects nothing. So comfort and hearing matter as much as the seal does.
Same disclosure as always: I haven’t personally worn all four of these. Where I’m going on independent testing rather than my own sessions, I’ve said so. I don’t quote prices, because they move around weekly and a page full of stale numbers is worse than none at all. Check the listing for what it costs today.
1. SurfEars 4.0 – Best Overall
The most recommended plug in surfing, and for good reason. The design uses a mesh rather than a solid barrier, so water stays out while sound gets through. That’s the whole trick.
Being able to hear matters more than people expect. In a crowded lineup you need to hear someone shouting, and if a plug cuts you off from that you’ll take it out. SurfEars come in four sizes with an optional fixation wing and a removable leash, and testers consistently rate the seal as the best available.
The catch is the price. It costs five times as much as a basic plug. Compared with the cost of ear surgery, the maths works out fine.
Best for: Anyone surfing cold water regularly, or anyone who has already been told they have early exostosis.
Where to buy: Check price on Amazon.
2. Doc’s Proplugs – Best Value and Best Fit Range
The original surf plug, and the one that takes fit most seriously. Doc’s make eight sizes, more than anyone else offers, and that matters because ear canals vary enormously and a plug that doesn’t fit yours is useless.
They come vented or non-vented. Vented lets you equalise and hear a bit; non-vented seals harder. For most bodysurfing, vented is the better call. They’re made from Kraton, they float if you lose one, and they’re cheap enough to keep spares in the car.
Reviewers note a learning curve. They sit differently to a conventional plug and take a few sessions to get used to. Push through it.
Best for: Getting protected today without spending much, and for anyone who has struggled to find a plug that fits.
Where to buy: Check price on Amazon.
3. Mack’s AquaBlock – Best Cheap Plug
The cheapest thing on this list by a distance, and the most bought by a mile. It has more reviews than everything else on this page combined, which counts for something when you’re spending your own money on a product you can’t try first.
Soft silicone, three pairs to a pack with a case. No leash and one size only, so fit is a lottery compared to Doc’s. The three pairs take the edge off that, mind: lose one in the whitewater and you’re still in the water rather than driving home.
Best for: Trying plugs for the first time without committing money.
Where to buy: Check price on Amazon.
4. Eartune Aqua U – Best Middle Ground
Under half the price of SurfEars, with hypoallergenic silicone and a waterproof filter that holds water out while letting sound in. Testers rate the comfort highly and the seal as effective, and they come on a lanyard.
The trade-off is security. The wings are softer than SurfEars, so they hold less firmly in heavy water. For gentler surf that’s fine. For solid shorebreak, less so. The lanyard takes some of the sting out of that, because a plug that works loose stays attached to you rather than heading for the sandbank.
Best for: Long comfortable sessions in moderate surf.
Where to buy: Check price on Amazon.
Hoods and the Rest of the Kit
Plugs are half the answer. Stanford lists a neoprene hood alongside earplugs as the other preventive measure, and there’s a reason for that: a hood deals with wind chill, which plugs don’t.
If you’re in genuinely cold water, wear both. A 2mm or 3mm neoprene hood over plugs covers the two mechanisms that drive the condition. If you’re somewhere warm and just want the wind off your head on an offshore morning, a hooded rash top does a lot of the same work. Have a look at the rest of the gear worth owning if you’re building a kit from scratch.
Getting the Water Back Out
Plugs keep water out while you’re in the surf. What they don’t do is deal with the water that gets past them anyway, and if you’re wearing a hood over the top you can finish a session with a canal that stays damp for hours.
Be clear about what this does and doesn’t do, because plenty of gear pages are not. Drying your ears will not prevent surfer’s ear. Exostosis is driven by cold water and wind hitting the canal repeatedly over years, which is what the plugs and the hood are for. Drying is about the other problem: trapped water is the usual explanation given for swimmer’s ear, and anyone who has had a bout of that will tell you it costs you more sessions than a cold snap does.
Most of the time you don’t need to buy anything. Tilt your head, work a corner of a towel in gently, let gravity do the rest. If you surf a couple of times a week that is genuinely enough, and I’d rather tell you that than sell you something.
Where a dryer earns its place is volume. If you’re in the water most days, wear plugs and a hood, and have had trouble with your ears before, warm air shifts water that gravity and a towel won’t. Mack’s make an electronic one that blows warm air into the canal for a minute or so a side.
It is not cheap for what it is, and it’s the one thing on this page I’d tell most people to skip. If you’re the person it’s for, you already know.
Best for: Daily surfers, cold water, and anyone with a history of ear infections.
Where to buy: Check price on Amazon.
How to Avoid Surfer’s Ear Without Overthinking It
The habits are simple and they cost nothing.
Wear the plugs every session, not just the cold ones. Risk accumulates by exposure, so consistency beats intensity. The session you skip is the one that counts against you.
Get the water out afterwards. Tilt your head, work your jaw, let it drain. Trapped water is what turns a narrowed canal into an infection.
Don’t dig around in there. Cotton buds push wax further in and scratch the canal. If you’ve got a blockage, that’s a job for a doctor.
Start now rather than later. Prevention only works forwards. Bone already laid down stays there, so the best day to start wearing plugs was your first session and the second best day is today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can surfers ear go away on its own?
No. The clinical literature describes it as slowly progressive and irreversible without surgery. Bone growth that has already happened stays, which is why prevention is the whole game. Wearing plugs from today stops it getting worse, but it will not undo what is already there.
Do I need ear plugs if I only surf warm water?
Risk rises sharply below about 19°C, so warm water surfers are lower risk. Lower is not zero. Wind chill contributes even in warmer water, and most people who surf warm water also travel or surf through winter at some point. Plugs cost very little, so the sensible answer is to wear them.
How do I know if I already have it?
You probably won’t know, because most cases cause no symptoms at all. Water that takes a long time to drain, repeated ear infections, muffled hearing or a blocked feeling after sessions are all worth getting checked. A GP or ENT can see it with an otoscope in about a minute, and that is the only reliable way to find out.
The Short Version
Buy plugs, wear them every time, and you have dealt with surfer’s ear. If money is tight, Doc’s Proplugs at eleven dollars will do the job. If you surf cold water often, SurfEars are worth the extra and you’ll actually keep them in.
And if anything in your ears feels off right now, book an appointment. This article is about keeping healthy ears healthy. Anything past that is a conversation for someone with a medical degree.