Ask any surfer from Rincon to County Line about glasses and you get a laugh. Ask about contacts and you hear about lenses lost in a duck dive, salt and sand under the lens, and eyes that burn for an hour after a session. Seeing the set coming from the outside, reading the lineup, spotting a rip: surfing depends on distance vision, and that is exactly what nearsighted surfers lose when they paddle out without correction.
Why water and contact lenses are a bad mix
Soft contact lenses are not meant to be worn in the ocean, pools or hot tubs. Water can carry microbes that cling to the lens, and a lens infection of the cornea can be serious. Many surfers know this and go in anyway, or surf blurry. That is often the moment they start thinking about vision correction.
What SMILE and SMILE Pro do differently
SMILE (small incision lenticule extraction) corrects nearsightedness, with or without astigmatism. A femtosecond laser shapes a thin, lens-shaped piece of tissue inside the cornea, and the surgeon removes it through an opening about 2 to 3 millimeters wide. There is no hinged flap like the one made in LASIK. The American Academy of Ophthalmology’s EyeWiki notes that this lenticule-extraction approach can be preferable to LASIK for athletes in contact sports, and that because the incision is so small, fewer corneal nerves are cut, which is linked to less dry eye after surgery.
SMILE Pro is the newer version, done on the ZEISS VisuMax 800 laser, which the FDA approved in January 2024. For surfers, the practical points are:
- No flap to dislodge. A board to the face or a hard wipeout is a real risk in this sport.
- Less dryness for many patients. Wind, sun and salt already stress the eye surface.
- Age. SMILE Pro is for patients 22 or older, and your prescription should be stable.
LASIK is still an excellent choice for many people, and it treats some prescriptions SMILE Pro does not. The exam decides, not the sport.
Getting back in the water
After any laser vision correction, the eye needs time to seal and heal before it meets ocean water. Your surgeon will give you a date. Do not guess. Until then, stay out of the ocean, pools and hot tubs, and keep wearing the protective shields and drops you are given. Once you are cleared, wraparound sunglasses on the beach help protect against UV and glare.
You can read more about SMILE at Khanna Vision Institute, or start with a free VIP video consult by calling our Westlake Village office at (805) 230-2126.
A lot of my surfing patients tell me the best part is simple: paddling out and seeing the set before it arrives.
Source: Keratorefractive Lenticule Extraction (KLEx) Surgeries (EyeWiki, American Academy of Ophthalmology). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.