Bain Rests After Eye Surgery
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday March 12, 1987
THE Queenscliff pro Robbie Bain is out of the water for at least three weeks after an operation on his left eye to remove a pterygium.
It is the second time in eight years that Bain, 24, has had this surgery.
"I first had it done in 1979 but it grew back again. This time, when they cut it off they had to graft the eye with skin from the back. As it's the second time, I want to get it fixed permanently," Rob said.
Pterygiums are caused by excessive sunlight and are aggravated by salt water.
Rob has had an excellent year on the professional circuit. Last year, he finished 35th on the rankings. This year, with two contests to go - the Bells and the AA rated Coke Classic - he is in 15th place.
JOHN HOWITT, the owner of Peak Wetsuits, was in Sydney recently from his new temporary base in California. Howitt, who used to be a Newport butcher, started up Peak on the Peninsula back in 1981. Two-and-a-half years ago, he expanded the operation to Newport Beach in California.
John said that surf fever finally had reached the vast expanses of the US mid-west.
John is living in a condominium block in Costa Mesa, near Newport Beach. For $US720 a month for a one-bedroom condo, John gets the use of three swimming pools, two tennis courts, three spas, two saunas, a gymnasium, a squash court and a own private man-made lake for hired sailing boats ...
Is he bored? "I'm enjoying winter in the US," John said, "but summer brings out all the creeps."
SIMON ANDERSON and his girlfriend, Sharon, recently returned from Hawaii after a 10-week therapeutic visit. Simon needs his annual dose of island paralysis to keep sane.
Waves, of course, were classics for the season and Big Simon divided his time between the North Shore of Oahu and the magical island of Maui.
He did a bit of shaping work there with former ASP tour judge Brad Dugan. Accommodation was a 14-metre ketch moored in Lahaina Harbour, which he described as "most enjoyable".
What wasn't so pleasant was his immediate return to work at Energy Surfboards where he was locked into the shaping bay with orders for 80 boards over the next five months.
Simon virtually has retired from the pro scene, despite carving with the best when the surf gets serious. He plans to compete in only the Bells and Margaret River contests this year.
However, he says he could well be drawn back to Hawaii in November.
SIXTEEN-year-old Novocastrian Nicky Wood continued his devastating form on the APSA Pro-Am circuit at Cronulla this month.
Wood narrowly defeated Simon Law, also from Newcastle, in a dynamic final in good 1.2-metre waves at the Alley.
Law won the manoeuvre of the contest award with a phenomenal closeout floater in an earlier semi-final.
His win in the Harvey World of Surfing Pro-Am puts him well ahead on the rankings. He recently turned professional and there is little doubt that he will become the youngest surfer ever to win a world title on the ASP tour.
Robbie Bain finished third in the final with Cronulla's Richard Marsh fourth.
© 1987 Sydney Morning Herald
