Busy Day

Spent a couple of hours at the beach today, I didn't plan on spending that much time there but I couldn't stop watching the Surf Life Savers. There was a bit of a wind today with temperatures around 31C so everyone was cooling off at the beach appreciative of the cool breeze coming off the ocean. Most people don't realise when there is a bit of wind there are some severe 'rips' in the ocean...there are quite a few people who learned that today!

Everyone is advised to swim within the flags, thats where the Life Savers patrol, but of course you get a smart ass, or two, who think that the warnings dont apply to them. There was a group of people who decided they wanted to swim out of the flagged area, the Surf Life Savers attracted their attention and advised them to swim within the flags, the group reluctantly wandered over to the flagged area but it wasn't long before they decided they wanted to body surf the big waves without a board.....we can all see what's coming, can't we? Yup, one of those idiots got caught in a rip and couldn't help himself, he was constantly pulled under and swept along underwater surfacing further out to sea. The group started panicking and yelling to the Life Savers for help, the Life Savers did what they had to do.....they are such strong swimmers.....they managed to get to the guy and bring him in, he was pretty shook up when he arrived back on the beach and somewhat embarrassed....those people should have to pay a fine for that as they were already warned, but thats not the way it goes unfortunately.

The Life savers were also dealing with little kids with their body boards who were drifting out of the flagged area and unable to get back in.

There were a few stingers around today, blown in from out at sea with the wind, and the Life Savers had to administer first aid to those people with stings. They had a busy day and I just lay there watching them......and burning in the sun, which I didn't realise until I got home and jumped in the shower!!

The Life Savers are volunteers, they run classes for kids to teach them to swim, they have the 'little nippers' club which is for young kids training to be Life savers. The majority of Life Savers are teenagers and young adults who donate their weekends to patrol the beaches. I witnessed first hand today what a great job they do and what fabulous bodies they have.....I might pop back to the beach tomorrow to see if they can help me with my sunburn!!!!!!!!