Sun Protection

I’ve been experimenting with sun protection for the past several years, after being carved on by the skin doctor a few times, usually on my face and once on the back. And it wasn’t as much fun as it sounds…I’d been wearing Columbia Wear long sleeve shirts since 1994, back before they became stylish far away from the docks. Captain Joe Surovik, who’d survived a major skin cancer on his leg, advised me that year to load up on CW shirts at the Houston Boat Show when they were marked down—-and there was a seamstress there who would sew your name on each shirt for an extra dollar or two.     

My big hat with neck protection, sometimes called a Lefty Kreh hat or a Mark Sosin hat (by Mark Sosin), I had worn since the early 1980s, drawing commentary at the Galveston tournaments. People there called it my pelican hat, because of the funny, longer bill. You know the type.

Years later, first mate Amy and I were wearing doctor’s scrub pants, Columbia shirts and pants, and using the bigger hats. Decent sun protection.

Then we fished several billfish tournaments in Puerto Rico, and were impressed to see these billfish crews smearing lots of high-SP sunscreen on themselves at 8 a.m. every morning, as we headed across the harbor. White guys, brown guys, black guys in our crews—-they all smeared it on thick. There must be some bad sun in those southern latitudes. And maybe these guys didn’t want to look like wrinkled Australians from the Outback. There are lots of lady’s men in Puerto Rico. And fine ladies, for that matter… At a well-attended happy hour each evening, you could easily pick out the visiting Texans, by their sunburns. One of them was Richard Richardson, an old comrade from the Galveston Tourney days. Another was from South Padre Island, I think named Bruce. Pam Basco was also there, but she wasn’t burned.

Back in Florida, a local friend and I later fished for trout in a boat with no shade and after watching him, I began covering up even more, this photo taken two weeks ago.

I was impressed when he donned sun gloves, was well-covered, and while snorkeling for scallops, literally wore a rubber bathing cap. The last item looked lame, but it certainly protected his balding head. On the next snorkel trip I brought a biker’s black du-wrap and swam for hours with that, with zero sunburn on my head. Somehow it seemed more dignified than the bathing cap. 

Since that trip with the du-wrap, two years came and went. Florida fishing guides are slowly switching over to face wraps made by Buff, which covers every inch of your head and neck, if you have sunglasses. A simple cap worn above adds additional shade, water protection and visor-aid for the eyes. Saltwater fly fishermen, who have zero shade in small skiffs, seem to be paving the way in this field.

The Buff material is far more breathable than a bandana, which I wore all of last year, including 15 consecutive days in boats without shade during drought conditions on the Texas coast. A nearby fly fishing guide wore a Buff wrap during those two weeks, and I never did see his face. My bandana, as I drove back into the marina, made me look like a train robber at the very least. Three months later in Venezuela during the national bass tournament, the red bandana also worked well, and drew honks and upright fists from motorists passing by on the reservoir dam above us. What? I had forgotten, the red bandana is a staple in Venezuela these days… 

So, last week I switched to the Buff head wrap, which still requires sunscreen beneath it. During a recent 12-hour day in a Contender boat without shade, catching kingfish and snapper in August heat, it worked okay, though it still allows five percent sunlight penetration. I used Neutrogena 30 sunscreen underneath, which still seemed to allow sun. (Better switch back to Bullfrog sunscreen). The sun gloves worked well, and when you’re hauling squirming baitfish into the boat rapid-fire, tossing them into the live well, they prevent various nicks and scrapes from spikey fins. A purist would use a de-hooker without even touching the baitfish, believing sunscreen in baitfish water is a bad thing. But with gloves, you don’t get sunscreen on everything you grab. I’ve now tried four brands of sung gloves and the best brand was Wind River, which carries the palm padding for handling fish and equipment. 

My two Texas friends, Alan and Bud, fished alternately last week without shirts or hats, the younger Alan more inclined to go without a shirt. (The young cultivate their tans, after all). We had to pull a green shirt onto Alan, while he fought this quickly-released kingfish, so we could take a picture the magazines might actually be interested in. 

This year I also fished with two new guys wearing the Buff head wraps. One was the bowfishing guide named Ed McCormick, written about in another story below, who has the babe girlfriend, who bowfishes Tampa Bay. He’s downright pale for a fishing guide, but then many of his trips are at night, when they shoot with the aid of generators and lights. 

The other new guy was last week on the Navarre Beach Pier. He is about 70 and has fished a great deal, makes and sells his own pompano jigs. He was completely wrapped up, though I saw his pale face a time or two while we talked.

He said he’s had 30 skin cancer surgeries, but refuses to stop fishing in the Florida sun. (I’ll track him down and get his name). He just shakes his head at the passing, hatless tourists and small kids without shirts in the August sun. He said he saw a kid and parents on the pier recently, the kid with a large sun blister on his cheek, with no shirt or hat, and it made him sick. “They’ll find out the hard way, like I did. But years ago, we didn’t even know about long-term sun damage,” he said. Around us that day fished tourists from other regions, including Alabama and Georgia. Even redheads.

Today the old veteran angler is pale beneath his cloth, but his skin damage happened many years ago. (He’s tried a number of sun glove brands, by the way, and favors those made by Bass Pro Shop). 

It all boils down to individual choice. Some people burn more easily, or are more susceptible to skin cancers. Some were children when they were toasted years ago. And then nationality may play a part. Bill Sheka, a trophy trout guide out of Corpus Christi, once told me that at 37, he’d never worn sunscreen in his life. He said he was part Russian and that seemed to help. His skin back then (1989) was the blackest of any fishing guide I’d ever seen, outside The Bahamas.  

Fishing guides are the high-risk group, guys and gals who fish so many days in a row, and who often sport sport “raccoon eyes,” their sunglasses saving a small part of their faces from constant pummeling from UVA and UVB radiation. UVA will penetrate glass and cuts deeply into skin. UVB won’t penetrate glass, but affects the outer layer of skin. Both cause wrinkles, lowers immunity against infection, inflicts various aging skin disorders and cancer.

That certainly seems worth guarding against.