The idea behind SurfEars was born in 2011 when Christian Dittrich, cold water surfer since 25 years, had a serious ear infection during a surf trip to Morocco. Totally deaf on one ear for nearly a week and forced to stay out of the water, the infection was a real pain to get rid of. It wasn’t the first time and surely not the last. Christian went to examine his ears and was told he had a severe case of exostosis, or Surfer’s ear, in both ear canals. He was facing a future of either having to cope with bad ear plugs, go through a nasty surgery (which would only temporarily ease the issues) or quit surfing.

Having tried nearly all ear plugs on the market, the conclusion was always the same – wearing earplugs sucked. Not being able to hear your environment takes away a big part of the surfing experience. Struggling to hear and talk to other surfers makes you feel isolated and also affects your balance, which is crucial for surfers. Adding to that, most ear plugs had a bad fit, resulting in poor comfort and water leaking into your ear.