Malignant Melanoma

Forget for a moment all the vitamin D benefits and its assistance in helping you attract a mate. The sun is not your friend. And just like with any adversary, the best offense is a good defense. Moving from Deerfield Beach, FL, to South Africa as a teenager, Cheyne Cottrell had to consider all kinds of exotic hazards peripheral to the Dark Continent surfing experience. Great whites. Cavernous rock reefs. The occasional rogue hippo. But skin cancer? No way. He’s been sheathed in 3-mm neoprene body armor for most of his surfing life. But during a routine wart removal a few weeks back, Cheyne discovered that even he isn’t immune to malignant melanoma. Cheyne took a break from frantically chasing around a bunch of surf campers with SPF 45 all day to give EasternSurf.com a cautionary scare about that big bright star in the sky, which we all must learn to keep at a well-coated arm’s length.