Strange benign chest masses discovered in SoCal surfers

Surfers have long braved shark bites, reef scrapes and the dreaded “surfer’s ear.”

But now, aging wave surfers may be taking home a bizarre souvenir from their years in the waves: strange fatty growths protruding from their chests.

Doctors have identified unusual bumps, called “liposurfomas,” in longtime surfers, who appear to develop them after years of repeatedly rubbing their torsos against hard surfboards while paddling. Although these alarming masses may look like tumors, researchers say they appear benign, although they may grow larger with continued surfing.

This particular condition has received renewed attention in Southern California after researchers at the University of California, Irvine, studied seven surfers with distinctive growths. Dr. Jeffrey Klein, a professor of dermatology at UC Irvine and one of the researchers behind the study, said the growths can be mistaken for cancer, which could send otherwise healthy surfers down an agonizing path of tests and treatments.

“These lesions are rather common among surfers,” the researchers wrote, noting that most surfers know someone with soft, symmetrical chest bumps.

These masses are thought to result from “relentless low-grade traumatic compression of subcutaneous tissue, trapped between the costal margin and the hard deck of a surfboard while paddling in a prone position.”

The growths are different from the better-known “surfer’s knots,” researchers say, which are hard, callous-like masses typically found on the knees, feet and shins of longboarders. Both are believed to be benign tissue growths.

Surfing icon Corky Carroll even went public with his bulging chest in a 2010 column, describing himself as “the man with four breasts.”

The growths tend to swell during peak surfing seasons and shrink slightly as surfers spend more time on dry land. For surfers wanting to ditch extra pecs, treatments range from adding extra padding to wetsuits to surgical removal and liposuction.

However, doctors warn that if surfers continue to surf, the bumps may return.

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