How To Handle Nature’s Bad Side  | posted on July 03, 2012
Although Laurie Towner looks to be leaking an alarming volume,
most reef rashes appear much more serious than they are. Photo:
Frieden  Let’s face it: Nature has a mean streak. Sometimes you
show up to the beach to find head-high, glassy waves while other
times you’re met with an invasion of Portuguese Man O’ War or a
bed of sea urchins. To learn how to deal with these
unpleasantries, we tapped the shoulder of Hawaii’s Kirk Ziegler,
a North Shore lifeguard who’s knows his way around dealing with
beachside trauma all too well.  Sea Urchins: It happens and it
hurts, but stepping on a sea urchin, isn’t going to kill you so
the best thing you can do is to relax. There are a lot of
different theories out there on what you should do to dull the
ache, but the best thing you can do is to soak the effected area
in warm water for a while. When you’re done soaking your foot,
try and pull all of the big spines out you can out with a
disinfected pair of tweezers