While surfing very small waves on the north shore, I jumped off my board at the end of a ride. As I casually came to the surface feeling for my board above so I don’t hit my head, somehow, as my face was breaking the surface, my board came flying nose first into my eye. I think the cord wrapped around the tail of the board, choking up on the length, and as my right leg descended below, it rapidly drove the nose of the board into my eye.
One in a million…
When it hit the lower brow of my left eye, it cut my eye lid, them bounced off the brow, and drove into the inside corner of my eye and nose, breaking my nose and driving my eyeball so deep into the eye socket that the pressure on the eyeball broke two of the orbital bones (side and bottom) that form the eye socket. These bones are evolved to breakaway in order to save the eyeball.
There’s a good chance that without the nose guard, I may have been knocked unconscious and my eyeball may have been perforated and lost. I was blinded in that eye initially, and paddled in with blood pouring down on the deck of my board. I was able to walk to a shower and let it run over my head till the bleeding subsided. Kaiser emergency did an amazing job, stitched up my eyelid, checked me out and ultimately I declined surgery to reset my nose or the orbital bones since both were optional and the risks seemed to out weight the benefits.
Five months later, my nose is healed and my double vision continues to recede towards the outer periphery of my vision in my left eye. No doubt I was very blessed to have God looking over me and to have a SurfCo Surf Nose Guard in my board. I have them on all my boards now and always recommend them to anyone who will listen.
Mahalos David and Doreen Skedeleski for your awesome product made for them right reasons, and my to wife Kathy for looking after me and helping me heal and recover.
Aloha,
Mark Ingoglia
surfcotestimonies.com 
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