SFR Reapplication of Sunscreen?

Sorta fishing-related
Flymph

Flymph

Life of the Party
Just had a close call with skin cancer and probably need to take better care while fishing. I would encourage all to have all those suspicious looking spots/bumps, etc. checked out at least once a year. I am very thankful that an original dx of Basil cell carcinoma was eventually found benign.

I use 100 block and don't do a lot of reapplication. Being in a boat for up to 5 hours having to endure direct reflection off the water it would likely be a good idea to reapply at least every two hours. I look for "broad spectrum" sun screens that cover UVB and UVA radiation.

Skin doc told me (being an old bum with lots of spots/bumps) to apply sunscreen 365 days of the year including going into the parking lot on a cloudy day!

I suspect old fogy Fly Fishermen should probably reapply more often???
 
Having a non malignant melanoma requiring 17 stitches to close up after surgery on the top of my head , I’ve been pretty careful with protecting myself . Was told it wasn’t far from being malignant if left much longer , I was lucky .
 
Hi,
I had a non- melanoma (squamous cell carcinoma) get out of hand when I was 32. Multiple surgeries that made me even uglier and month long gnar course of radiation… heck I am going back in Thursday for another surgery 18 years later! As you know it isn’t just melanoma to pay attention to.
Anyway, I am a big fan of covering up, with my face the only thing out. Hooded sun shirts seem to work well for me. As for sunscreen I am into the hippie sun blocks as opposed to sunscreens. I look even whiter but have bought into the whole ‘it sits on your skin not in your skin’
Ymmv
Also, my doc was big into the do all your fun things before 10 and after 4. My favorite times of the day anyway. I still get out mid day but it is rare. Not sure that is an option for all tho.
 
Pants, long sleeves and hoods for all my outdoor activities. I have short sleeves and shorts for the gym and my morning runs and that's about it. I don't mess around with the sun.

I've noticed the older generations seem much more in to the "shirt off when it's hot" thing.
 
Having had over 100 moles removed via surgery, many were squamous or basil cell, I have some experience... Thankfully no melanoma ---> yet.

What I am experiencing is from abuse years ago.

SPF highly rated clothing is a game changer. Wear it religiously. Then SPF 50 block applied every couple hours to uncovered areas is my recommendation.

Semi-annual doctor visits for life...
 
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I’m with Evan in the covering up department. My look is “the invisible man goes fishing “. I grew up on the beach, in the days when the best way to get a tan was to start with a burn to lay down a good base. And I’m sure that 15 years in Arizona didn’t help. I figure that I’m one wrong photon away from bad news
 
I go into the dermatologist every 6 months...plenty of pre-cancerous lesions frozen off, and one basal cell carcinoma football excision last year.

I apply good sunblock on the back of my hands and face at the beginning of the day...and wear hooded long sleeved sunshirts, ball cap, and long pants even when kayaking. Today's fabrics are quite cool even in hot weather.

Us old farts from the 'Coppertone' era are paying the freight for a lot of dermatologist and oncologist's kid's college educations.
 
I spent my youth on the shores of Tripoli, Libya, on the edge of the Sahara; the hottest temperature ever recorded (at that time) was 35 miles from our house. I spent most of my summer days at the beach, and was brown as a berry, with my hair bleached out to the point I was a towhead. So yeah, I have to worry about sun these days. I had exactly the same situation as Krusty posted above.

I apply sunblock twice a day, typically. I think the first application is most important. I apply it at home, so that it's had time to dry/soak in/whatever it does before I hit the water. I re-apply at lunch to the face as it's been sweaty. The area I pay most attention is my ears, my neck behind my years and to my shoulders (site of my basal cell carcinoma), and of course face. I always always always wear a full brim hat, even though it makes me look like a dorky Amish. And long-sleeved shirts, not only for the sun, but to avoid the ever-present wild parsnip that's so common in The Driftless Area. I'm always in pants waders, so don't worry about the southern hemisphere.
 
krusty said:
I go into the dermatologist every 6 months...plenty of pre-cancerous lesions frozen off, and one basal cell carcinoma football excision last year.

I apply good sunblock on the back of my hands and face at the beginning of the day...and wear hooded long sleeved sunshirts, ball cap, and long pants even when kayaking. Today's fabrics are quite cool even in hot weather.

Us old farts from the 'Coppertone' era are paying the freight for a lot of dermatologist and oncologist's kid's college educations.
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x2 - typing this with freeze scabs on arms, face and ears from my recent semi-annual, thankful that yet another biopsy came back negative.
For someone whose spent their life as much outdoors as indoors, I've been fortunate only having had two basil cells, removed via MOHS.
Daily face and hand sunscreen, sunhoodies, broad brims, sun gloves, self exams, and see a derm regularly.
My derm says the hardest part of his job is having older ranchers, farmers, outdoorsman, road workers, etc, come in and immediately recognize what is likely to be be metastasized melanoma.
BTW, in Australia, which has the strictest sunscreen rules in the world for ratings and ingredients, sunscreen cannot be labeled higher than 50. And sunscreen manufacturers are unable to claim the terms ‘sunblock’, ‘waterproof’ and ‘sweat proof’ as these terms are considered to be potentially misleading. The maximum water resistance claimable is four hours for SPF30 and above.
 
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Great to see real life experiences being shared. A very good thing!

IMHO that is important!

Skin cancer is scary. But at same time not that scary when caught in time.

Emphasize ---> caught in time...

It is not easy to scope out all areas by yourself. My wife has seen a few and alerted me. I am thankful for that. She plays connect the dots (moles). The connection is not pretty...
 
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krusty said:
I go into the dermatologist every 6 months...plenty of pre-cancerous lesions frozen off, and one basal cell carcinoma football excision last year.

I apply good sunblock on the back of my hands and face at the beginning of the day...and wear hooded long sleeved sunshirts, ball cap, and long pants even when kayaking. Today's fabrics are quite cool even in hot weather.

Us old farts from the 'Coppertone' era are paying the freight for a lot of dermatologist and oncologist's kid's college educations.
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I was using in baby oil era. After being in the South, sailing on center boards on a trampoline while racing them, to sports cars, tops down of course, and swim pool sunning with baby oil, I had my fair share.. Paying the price now...
 
Timely. Just had a squamous cell scooped out along with the bi-annual scaly freeze off and have had a couple basal cell MOHS procedures in the past. I'm pretty diligent but could always be better, one thing I am extreme about is examining and keeping tabs on the skin. Getting the regular freeze fest and the oddball stuff removed and tested. The light weight sun hoody's are the best thing ever.

When is the drizzle and rain going to show up, I'm bone dry and in need of some good soakings!
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I had a bone marrow transplant 9 1/2 years ago for lymphoma. One of the things they told me was that all of the chemo and radiation that I received gave me a much higher risk of skin cancer. I spend a lot of time on the water, especially during the summer, I wear long, lightweight pants, lightweight hoodies, and use sunscreen with zinc oxide on exposed skin. There are fewer chemicals on the ingredient list for this type of sunscreen. So far, so good. I used to be a sun worshiper, but no more. Oh, and yesterday was cloudy with some rain on the Deschutes.
 
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Despite their ugly white sheen, the actual barrier zinc and titanium oxide sunscreens are the best, in my opinion. I spent too much time in the sun relying on my natural tan ability, so now I try to always put them on. Plus they don't kill coral and maybe other things like some of the chemical sunscreens do.
 
Tallguy said:
Despite their ugly white sheen, the actual barrier zinc and titanium oxide sunscreens are the best, in my opinion. I spent too much time in the sun relying on my natural tan ability, so now I try to always put them on. Plus they don't kill coral and maybe other things like some of the chemical sunscreens do.
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I use physical sunscreen (e.g. Zinc) on my hands because they bear the brunt of exposure. Since I'm rowing and fishing, I don't like chemical sunscreen on my hands because it's rough on gear, and I find that I can usually apply the physical sunscreen to the back of one hand, then successfully apply it to the other back of hand without ever touching the stuff.

I feel like my favorite face sunscreens have delaminated several pairs of glasses. The Neutrogena spray stuff was great, but hard to get off the hands and decimated my Sunclouds and Smiths. I've been using my wife's Supergoop and am quite happy with it, but am trying to locate the much cheaper Trader Joes version.
 
Holy shit........ This is a scary thread................😳😳 I'm going to start putting that hood up where it , I guess, it should have been all along.....
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Trifecta winner here. Lentigo maligna 35 years ago, four years later a squamous cell, four years ago a basil cell. I subscribe to all things mentioned above with emphasis on a wide brim hat, sun gloves, and throw in some O'keeffe's spf 35 lip balm. Fortunately, my dermatologist 35 years ago scared the shit out of me and said if I didn't get serious about sunscreen and covering up I was a dead man walking. Days of lounging on a beach, wearing cut-offs and a tank top are long ago memories.
 
Just an FYI.
If you happen to be at Costco, they had Eddie Bauer UPF 50+ sun hoodies for $12.99 yesterday at the Shoreline store. Cheap protection for a guy who has had two melanomas…..
SF

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