Instead of getting surgical operation, an inventive surfer in Hawaii found a different way to treat his eye problem. He dipped his head into the rushing water while surfing a gigantic, 30-foot (10 meters) wave, Fox News reported.

A band of fibrous tissue growing over the outer layers of the surfer's eye caused his eye problem, a condition called pterygium. This irritating and sometimes dangerous growth often forms in people who spend a lot of time outdoors in sunny climates, and occurs so commonly among surfers that it is dubbed "surfer's eye."

When a pterygium becomes irritating, or is likely to harm vision, doctors remove it with surgery.

But this 61-year-old surfer chose to let the force of water take care of his pterygium, by "overbalancing" while surfing in Waimea Bay, off the North Shore of the island of Oahu in Hawaii, a place known for big wave surfing.

"He momentarily dipped his face into the water while travelling at top speed, but was able to recover his balance and continue surfing the wave," Dr. Thomas Campbell, a medical officer at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Queensland, wrote in the report published March 26 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

"This impressive maneuver resulted in the pterygium being ripped off his eye surface," Campbell wrote.

Although big wave surfers can reach speeds of 30 or 40 miles per hour, it's not easy for the blunt force of water to rip off a pterygium. This vascular tissue is even difficult to remove with scalpels and scissors, said Dr. Mark Fromer, an ophthalmologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Rather, it's possible that the water tore the conjunctiva, the membrane lining the surface of the eye.

"And the blood supply to the pterygium was interrupted, so maybe it died," Fromer said. "Pretty unlikely this is going to happen to anyone else."

The man's eye was inflamed for several days after his "experimental treatment," but his vision ultimately improved, according to the report. He was advised to seek medical attention if he developed a pterygium again.

Fromer noted that pterygium can be avoided by wearing sunglasses and hats.