It's rare that I ever see any surf pics of myself. The rare good days here do bring out the photogs tho'. I was surprised to find two of me in a large batch of Stuart Beach pics from the Irene and Katia storms recently. Don't even know the photog yet...As a budding lifeguard yourself...it might interest you to know that the same day the following pic of me was taken, I reponded to a teenage kid's calls for help as he was being swept out to sea in a strong rip current. He was just learning how to surf and had no ability...or even any muscle strength...to paddle himself to safety. I did get him to paddle himself enough parallel to shore to get out of the rip...but ended up having to tow him in a considerable distance with my leash as a tow rope. A surfer friend of mine my age took over and completed the 'rescue' job when the floundering kid still couldn't make it in on his own. I was dog-tired from paddling both of us in by then. This was at a guarded beach too and the lifeguards didn't know what was going on until I told one of them about it later...I read in the news that later that very same day, same beach...the lifeguards had to rescue an old guy in his 50's(like me)who also got caught in a rip(swimming?)and was drowning. He was unconcious when they finally got to him...but they managed to bring him back with CPR and a dispatched EMT crew...I think they had to shock him to get his heart pumping again. If I can find the article I'll post it here below...Here's my pic...http://magicseaweed.com/photoLab/viewPhoto.php?photoId=235393...There's one more of me...and some more of others in my pic favorites too. The photog took a LOT of pics!
Corrections...61 year old guy...and it was the next day(Saturday)...I guess it was the lifeguards themselves that used the defibrillator before the paramedics even got there...http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/sep/10/rescue-workers-save-drowning-man-at-stuart-beach/
Woot for the Life Guards!! Not sure if i have any pics of me surfing.. used to have a few on a laptop but that got stolen.. oh well, they all be stored in my mind somewhere.
I had to do CPR(just the chest compressions)on a really good guy about my age that I knew at my old job. It was almost 14 years ago, I think. He had gotten into a very heated argument outside with his boss...just beyond my work area. Next thing I heard was other people down the hall yelling "Call 911!"...I rushed outside and he was down on the sidewalk with the boss over him in a panic trying to deal with it. We just kinda automatically began two person CPR when the boss started doing the mouth-to-mouth resusitation breathing on him...It took seemingly forever for the paramedics to arrive and take over. It was no use. He died anyway. Massive heart attack did it. He had smoked heavily in his early years...and had quintuple(?)by-pass heart surgery some years before this happened. I think he still chewed tobacco some...but might be wrong about that. He had a good sense of humor and was well and widely liked. I joked around with him a lot too over the many years we knew each other...That day was one of the worst days of my life...so far...I had never experienced death up close and personal...let alone with someone I knew...before that.
Wow man, thats tough.. At least you can draw solace in the fact you did everything you could to help him, as most people would have probably panicked.. but that's gotta be hard man.. Was he a fellow surfer?
No, he wasn't a surfer. But he was born and raised in Stuart when it was still a small, friendly town and had a good old boy rural/country atmosphere. Everybody knew each other mostly. There was only one high school here in his early years. He might have tried surfing back then with high school pals. It would actually surprise me if he hadn't. I think he was always more into hunting and fishing...like most were here once. It once was an absolutely wild paradise for that here. There is still a lot of wild, natural area here...thanks to foresight and sane urban planning...And due to constant vigilance & battle against the now mostly outside-the-county, greedy, moneyed interests/investors/speculator developers...Even now in this recession...I often wish I had grown up here...instead of in the rapidly growing, insanely overdeveloping concrete jungle/suburban sprawl I did grow up in back then down south in Broward County. We shared the fact being native Floridians...an increasingly rare thing here...as so many out-of-state people have moved to Florida in droves over the years and swamped the native Floridian population almost everywhere. There was a very large turnout of THAT native Floridian's family, friends, neighbors and fellow employees at his funeral though.
Ahh nice man! What with our winter being their summer could get confusing, end up walking down the beach in Feb in a 5mil hooded wetty whilst its 30degrees out and everyone's in shorts, u might get some funny looks ;) Good luck with that tho im hopefully travelling to Aus for around 3months either the end of this year or the end of next :)
Taking a late drop on a wave of consequence, to have the lip come down on your back and send you into a double underwater somersault then dragged for what feels like forever to be left 5ft under water, And to come up with a huge grin on your face... Thats living!
yeah, our mutual friend dudette told me you have been busy lately. hope busy for good reasons mate. anyway, dont be a stranger here. See ya soon on here i hope. peace
Yeah, well busy is just a Welshman's lazy ;) haah na ive been busy, looking back at it im not sure what with but there always seemed to be something occupying my time. Yes i shall be on here more now :) x
oh thanks mate for showing up on my page and giving me some heads up on a link. i am looking forward to seeing if i can get this show on. i am terible and always F**k links up. Maybe because my wodka still has some fuel left inside. But I appreciate all the links I get. sometime I get punched in the balls. I am listening to some old black sabboth right now. Its friday down here. Its my time
Thank you Sir, for your time and hard work! You deserve a promotion!!! +1+1+1. Let me know where the next help is required and I'll join your ranks! =)
Here is what we had to climb up.. the mountain on the left of the screen (the one im standing on) . As you can see there is no path and with winds of around 70-80mph it was fairly extreme, grabbing onto the heather for dear life, and it got steeper the higher we went!! It was all good fun in the end :) http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs426.snc4/46938_1374782485505_1110104165_30878519_3118551_n.jpg
