Lovely day for a swim …

As planned, I did a subbed patrol the day before Australia day. Patrol captain was the very capable Michael – also on the beach were two of our best young lifesavers and Greg the club’s chairman. The weather could not have been better. The stifling 40+ heat of the day before had given way to a cooler 26 degrees, blue skies, light winds. Even the surf got in on the act, peeling large 2m waves down the length of Seven Mile Beach.

I was initially on duty in the radio room. The shark spotting plane Airpac 2 appeared over BlackHead and announced that a shark had been spotted 250m off the beach at Gerroa. I radioed down to the beach to tell Michael and he asked AirPac to do a few circuits to see if they could ascertain which way the shark was headed. After a few circuits they came back on the radio to say that the shark was headed off-shore back out to sea. Phew. I took my trigger finger off the shark alarm button and swapped the radio room for the beach.

It was such a nice day, that I spent a fair bit of time just floating around in the water with a rescue tube, trying to keep the cocky young kids out of the rips and the nasty dumpers beyond the sandbar. I was sitting there, tube tucked under my arms when I saw a young lad of about 12 waving to me. He was pointing at a small kid slightly further out who was struggling badly in the dumping foamy backwater. Fuck me – looked like I was actually going to have to do a proper rescue.

I swam over as quickly as possible and grabbed the kid. He was *very* quiet. I told him I was a surf lifesaver and was going to get him to shore and then I clipped the rescue tube under his arms, signalled to shore for assistance and began towing him back in to the beach. I had to stop every 30 seconds or so to turn the kid round so he was in front of me when the waves broke. I was joined in the water by Philip who helped me carry the kid up the beach.

You know – I’ve often seen rescues, both on TV and in real life and I have to tell you – it’s the most surreal thing to be in the centre of it, doing the rescuing. The beach was very busy and all eyes were on us as we carried the kid up above the high water mark to the surf shade. They made a path for us, direct to the hut, dads pulling kids out of the way so we could get up the sand as quickly as possible. I heard several mums calling their kids out of the water. 

We got the lad up to the hut and we were joined by Karl the club captain who luckily was on the beach with his two young kids enjoying the weather. I sent Philip to get the oxyviva and Karl and I got the lad in the rescue position and rested his head on a rescue tube. I started talking to him and assessed his condition. His pupils were like pin pricks, his breathing was very shallow and he was starting to shake – all indications that he was going into shock. He told me his name was William – and then his mum appeared at the hut and told us he was asthmatic too.

The oxygen appeared and we got a mask on William. Some colour returned to his cheeks, but his pupils remained tiny and the shaking didn’t abate. Since we had no idea how much water he’d taken on, we opted to call an ambulance because in cases like this, people can deteriorate rapidly, even when they’ve seemed fine after emerging from the water. We kept the oxygen on him and then, having been told on the radio that the ambulance was only minutes away, we carried him up to the carpark on a spinal board. I handed over to the ambulance guys, gave ‘em all the information we had and they switched out oxygen tubes before transferring him into the ambulance.

Phew.

I returned to the radio room for a bit, in time to speak to AirPac 2 again, as it was on its way back up the coast to base. It circled our beach again and radioed in that there was a shoal(?) of sharks about a kilometre out to sea – but they seemed to be headed south and posed no threat to us. 

I wandered down to the beach and Michael and I decided to take the IRB out. The waves were still pretty big and unfortunately for us, the engine wasn’t in the best of shape – it kept spluttering and coughing on us. We found ourselves cornered between waves and had no option but to punch through. I got up the front and pushed the nose of the boat through the wave, coming down heavily on the other side. Michael said, “Fuck this,” and we headed back to shore.

We closed up the beach at 5pm, washed down the IRB, hut, gear trailer and tractor – and locked up for the night. I drove home and then Liz, Jack and I headed over to my parents to tell ‘em all about the excitement and enjoy a well deserved ice cold beer. Or 30.

Oh yea, William the young lad – made a full recovery.

Back to school …
So yay! The kids are back at school. The summer holidays are at an end – the new school year has begun. The day before term started I called in at the uniform shop and bought Jack five new shirts. He’s 7 years old, but required size 10. I reckon he’s grown a good two inches in the last couple of months – he’s starting to look well lanky. It’s hard to believe he’s the same tiddly little boy we first took to Amberley Parochial school back in 2005. 

I dropped him off at school on the first day – and then celebrated parental freedom by buying myself and Liz a couple of coffees from the good deli in town. Ah, the simple pleasures.