Yannick de Jager is a Dutch professional surfer who has now become an ambassador for the European Association of Surfing Doctors. Earlier in the year Adventure Medic Editor Luke Summers caught up with Yannick to talk about his past, surfing and even a little bit of medicine.
How are you? How are the waves?
I’ve been out of the water for three months because I had ear surgery for my surfer’s ear but I have been back in the water already for the last ten days. It’s been fun there’s lots of north swells coming in. With lots of things going on today though I’m not going in the water, it’s actually freezing, there is fresh snow on the beach, I’ll just stay dry today.
How long have you been surfing what got you into surfing?
My dad has got me into surfing he was one of the first surfers in Holland, with a handful of guys who started surfing the north sea. They came in touch with surfing on their school holidays down in France, they were in Biarritz and saw some Australian guys surfing that coast – the southwest. And when they got home they saw that you could surf here in The Hague. They started to keep an eye on it and started making their own boards and went in in scuba suits. This is going back almost 40 years ago now he was very early. Also European wise he was definitely one the first. He would travel around Europe visiting all the different spots like Spain and Portugal and France. After a couple of years he got into it so much and developed a passion, so when I was born we would go on surfing holidays. My mother wouldn’t surf but she would climb so we would go to the southwest of France and surf and then head into the Pyrenees to go on canyoning tours. Certainly not the normal course of life for someone coming from Holland.
I guess this explains to some part why your doing so well in competition these days. There have been other pros before from Holland but I don’t think anyone has been on the level and course I am now with the surfing career.
So how is life as a professional surfer?
Its definitely weird, its not like it is in the US where if you are a sports person or athlete they worship you already. Here we’re a bit different, it’s not normal – we should find a proper job. My parents are very supportive but my whole environment never says – “ok you can do this, this is possible, you can grow into your surfing.” There is a close group of us who are supportive but all the way though school I always thought I need to go to university and study and do something like economics, but looking back I’m really happy I didn’t do that. That was kind of a hard choice for me though, living in Holland and coming from my environment I had a feeling I had to do that, I had a sort of feeling I was conditioned in that way I guess. When I went to study though I decided that actually I want to give surfing a shot, and since that choice I’ve just been growing into a surfing career more and more and it’s been opening up a lot of thing for me. This conditioning is funny though because in my mind it was not possible and for me that gap was pretty big.
When did you turn pro?
18/19. First I was just semi pro through 17,18,19 then I turned pro 19/20. Now I’m 25.
What are the best bits about being pro?
The travelling is definitely amazing, I have seen some really special places in Indonesia, Mexico, all over. In Indonesia went to the Tenau islands, the Mentawis and java, Lombok and Bali – obviously, it was very special. I also like competing, like I said before I didn’t come from an environment when going to be a pro surfer was normal. Like in France or Spain or Portugal it was a lot more normal to be a pro surfer, there are lot of surfers and there is a way to become a pro surfer, because of the competitions and things like that. I didn’t have as much experience at competing, I had some, but at a very different level. So it was big transition and a big challenge going to international level, the world qualifying series. It was very interesting and enjoyable too.
What has been your competition highlight?
I came fifth in the world qualifying series event in Portugal and I beat some of the bigger names in European surfing and then last year I reached the quarter finals of one of the biggest events in the series, again beating some of the best European surfers. That for me was pretty big accomplishment.
Any other highlights?
Other than that I have been focusing a lot on my video project with my sponsor Protest. Me and a friend set up the latest North Sea video and Protest sponsored it. That is something I enjoy the most, travelling to unique places – we flew to Edinburgh and then up to the North to *secret locations* it was great. I loved it – it was so remote and quiet and you get the waves to yourself and the waves themselves are amazing. We surfed north east England as well on some beautiful reefs. Its amazing I have just surfed this [dutch] side of the north sea and that side is so close and the wave are so much better there – some world class reefs and much more powerful swells. The main thing about Holland is that the sea bed is so shallow so the waves loose a lot of their power but you don’t have that problem over there.
How did you get involved with the EASD?
I met Arvid’s brother in Costa Rica who has a surf camp there, he noticed I was getting some exposure in the Dutch media and he wanted to promote his surf camp, which is going really well now. So I had a photo shoot there and I went for a couple of days and he was setting up the camp and we stayed together and had a lot of fun and kept in touch. Then Arvid was setting up the European Association of Surfing Doctors and he approached me, we had a beer, we clicked, had a good conversation and that’s pretty much the way it went. I really liked what they were doing and how they were doing it. That was an easy decision to become an ambassador – I get a lot from the sport and would like to give something back in whatever way that can be.
What is it about EASD that you liked most that you’ve seen so far?
I like their model. I think the professionalism they show is great and the organization they have is pretty unique in the surfing world. But other than that I think they are setting up some really cool things now and think that they could contribute massively to the sport – to surfing injuries also remote locations and the people at those remote locations. One of the members also helped me out with my surfers ear operation. Through a friend of mine who is a physiotherapist who works at an institute down here which is like a whole health institute – its called health at the sea, actually that sounds better in Dutch – but anyway she gave me a contact and I made the call. There weren’t any doctors who had experience in operating on surfers ear in Holland, but she was a surfer and was connected to the EASD and she hooked me up with one of the best ear surgeons in Holland. I was still in doubt as to whether I should have the operation but I talked to him and four days later I was on the operating table getting it sorted.
Were you getting a lot of problems from your surfer’s ear?
Because I have been surfing from such a young age in such cold water it just developed. I don’t know how fast but the knowledge about it is still not that much about how it comes about or how fast it grows, they know some of it but there is still a lot of unknowns. It didn’t affect me that much but three years ago I had a massive infection when I was down in France in Hossegor and I was there for some obligations to my sponsor Nike at the time. All of a sudden I got an infection in my ear that got worse and worse, I also had a cold at that time and they go worse together. I just kept on surfing and doing my thing until I couldn’t hear anything in my right ear. When I was sleeping in bed one night all this green stuff started coming out of my ear, which was all swollen and my face was swollen and I knew that something was wrong. I went to the doctor and he couldn’t see anything because of this massive infection. I always knew I had it but didn’t realize it could get that bad. I knew I wanted to get home so I drove all the way on my own – about a 10-11 hour drive with a fever, I could barely see straight.
When I got home I went to the hospital and they didn’t know what was going on with all the bone growth in my ear and they had trouble removing the infection, which took about a month and a half to get rid of. I knew then there was a big trouble with my ear, both ears in fact but I have only had the right side operated on so far. But the left side will have to be done too, but I will wait till I get problems with that one first. The doctor that saw me at the time of the infection, I didn’t have a very good feeling about. I had done a lot of research myself and I knew it was a specific thing surfer’s ear, he said he had heard about it and he had a few patients but I didn’t trust him. I had the feeling that he saw me as just a project so I decided to look for someone else.
Have you had any big injuries surfing?
Actually I’ve been kind of lucky *knocks on wood* and I try to keep it that way. Other than the surfer’s ear I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had some foot injuries from skateboarding and snowboarding but other than that it’s going pretty good. There are definitely more and more injuries these days in surfing though as people surf bigger and bigger waves on shallow reefs especially. Also the technical maneuvers in surfing are progressing each day and they bring more risk as people get air, rotate and then land on the flat parts of the waves. You certainly see more injuries today than you did 10 years ago.
What does surfing medicine mean to you?
I think it could contribute to surfing injuries that happen a lot. I also think it will help surfers that travel to remote locations, tropical locations, cold water locations, etc. Improving prevention of certain injuries or the treatment of surfers with tropical diseases will also be a big thing I think.
What are your plans next?
I’m looking to start a new video project with the guys I did ‘Stories From Here to There’ with. I’m looking at the possibilities of several destinations – cold water and tropical destinations. My people want to get colder, maybe Norway and Iceland, back to Scotland but also some tropical stuff too I hope. Other than that it will be sponsorship obligations like photo shoots and things like that. I’m also starting some new sponsorships which may involve some product development. The next competition is not until August – the world qualifying series event in Europe. I only do the European leg and the first event will be the relentless board masters in Newquay. I’ll also be going to the conference in October in Portugal. Other than that I’m not sure what other plans are in the pipeline with the EASD but I am meeting soon with Arvid to arrange some more things. I’m looking forward to seeing where the EASD is going, other than just being an organization they could really do a lot of stuff that could make a difference and I’m really looking forward to being a part of it.
What do you think the biggest difference that the EASD could make and what they could focus on in the future?
In a lot of areas I guess, like prevention medicine and the treatment of injuries and things but I think for me the most interesting part would be to give something back to surfing. We could use surfing as a tool to treat patients that already have problems, like disabled people to help them get in to the water when they otherwise couldn’t, that would be a cool thing to do – what surfing could actually mean for people with disease or injuries, people could really benefit from that. Also helping the local people in remote locations, that would be a good way to give something back.
