It was quietening down at the beach when I arrived this morning.
It was incredibly flat too, so there were alot of little surfboards bobbing up and down in the water. It was an idyllic scene and I wondered why I'd stayed away so long. I've been to the beach a few times for early morning runs the past couple of weeks. But a fit of childish pique has seen me skip Bronze Training the past week, because I was annoyed the rest of my group hadn't got it together. We were meant to be finished two weeks ago. I was meant to have moved onto other things.
But we didn't, and we haven't.
I knew I needed to train today though if I was going to do the exam next week. I'd skipped yesterday's training so I knew I needed to come today. So I was here. I was sulking.
I chatted briefly to one of the lifesavers on my part of the beach. We discussed the merits of the foam and hard board before I headed out for a paddle while waiting for some others to show up. They were late. I was mad about that too.
I was about 100 metres off shore when I heard a shout. I turned and saw the lifesaver I'd been chatting with signalling me.
I was the only one that far out. That's what I thought.
The signal was pick up swimmers though so I looked round me. About 80 metres to my left and further out was a board and I could see someone struggling to get on it.
So I paddled over as fast as I could. I can't kneel up on the board yet (don't judge me!) so I'm probably not fast enough yet. As I got closer to them I saw it was a little boy about the same age as my eldest son.
He burst into tears as I got close to him.
I was very conversational with him.
7 year olds have huge pride, even when they are crying and being dragged out to sea.
We agreed he probably needed some help to get back to shore.
We agreed that it was probably best to go back to shore now.
We also agreed that I looked like the right person to help him out of this pickle.
So I secured him and got him back into shore .
His parents met me at the shore. Mum was heavily pregnant and pretty distressed. Dad hugged his boy and told him they were going to have:" a little chat."
And me?
Well it hit me like a brickbat between the eyes that there is a reason for doing this course.
I didn't save his life. The was an IRB that was on stand by to come and pick him up if I hadn't. I'm not a hero.
But I sure as hell couldn't have done this a few weeks ago.
And I'll train as hard as I can this week in preparation for my exam next weekend because I know that doing what I did today was the best rush I've had in a while.
And right now that's a good reason to keep plugging away at this.
Lifesaving rocks!