RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Re safety, yeah fair enough trev and beanpole - you’re pretty old but I know you’re good hearted. Just like, fcuk, I want people to be on to this. It’s not “clickbait” as yuke hunt said. I truly hope none of us on realsurf ever need rescuing in a critical situation where our lives are in danger, but if we ever do, we will truly want to be rescued.

Nick Carroll wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 22, 2019 6:44 am

Re safety, yeah fair enough trev and beanpole - you’re pretty old

they’ve still got feelings.

I lived the clubby life when I was younger, but haven’t had any involvement for probably 30 years. It’s not something you forget though, so I can and have helped people in strife and resuscitated a few.
“He got rescued doing what he loved” would be much nicer than the usual phrase we hear.

Yes, I'm not that older than Nick really.
As far as surf trips go......I never imagined I'd be surfing Cloudbreak at 61. Going out on the boat twice though reinforced the reality that if anything really went wrong chances are you're fcuked. It's not just that its out in the ocean. Really I imagine there's defribulators, oxygen, etc on Namotu and Tavarua. It's that unless you were getting smashed no ones paying that much attention. At Namotu I paddled back to where the boats were but the crew was snorkelling so I couldn't pick which boat was ours. A guy from the resort helped me up and took me to Namotu. I was telling him I was trying to find my boat but he didn't understand. Next trip I snapped my board and they told me to paddle in over the reef to get the other half. That didn't seem that likely. They then took off in the boat to get it and left me floating around on half a board for 15 minutes.

All good fun but if I had been in an accident it would have been a different story.

You hadn't been telling them stories about the button factory days prior had you?

The day I saved seven tender young lives.

I was walking back along the beach at Garie one time and there was a bunch of young asians caught in a rip and more on the shore yelling and screaming. There were no other surfers around nor anyone else to help out.

They were six in a group, the first two I got to were two girls about 12 years old, they were trying to rescue the other four but couldn't really help and were now in danger themselves, I figured I could do four but not six and told them to try to swim back in while I helped the other four.

When I got to them they were panicking, I got off my board and we all used it as support and I calmed them down. The rip was strong so I told them we were going out to sea and not to worry. We floated out about another 30m and then down to where waves were breaking. I told them the waves are going to break on us and they were to dive under and I would collect them all after.

We repeated this and it took a while but we all got back in to a crowd of hysterical relatives and friends. I started walking back.

And, another 100m and there was a repeat performance! Another crowd, three young kids this time and no-one to help so I had to go through the entire process again.

You are a hero Cranked.

Tell us about the time you scuba dived to save those kids in the cave in Thailand, Uncle Cranky.

And one of those kids you saved grew up to be Kim Jong Un ... look what you've done now Cranky !

offshore1 wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:47 am

Tell us about the time you scuba dived to save those kids in the cave in Thailand, Uncle Cranky.

It was nothing really Offy, it was not too far from Chiang Mai where we normally stay and when I heard the first reports I was up there in a flash to offer guidance and just help out wherever I could. It didn't take long to get everything organised and the rescue scheduled and I was back in Chiang Mai the next day.

Coincidentally, we are going back to Chiang Mai tomorrow and will be sure to catch up with the football team in Chiang Rai for a few laughs and have a kick around before we return.

Did you stay in the moated and walled old town? Its only about 4km x 4km and is World Heritage protected. Its like Thamel in Katmandu or Luang Prabang in Laos. Anywhere else is much like any average asian town, that is not-so-good.

Nowhere because I’m sick of this seemingly endless weak 2ft swell.

we got a lot of overhead surf in our neighbourhood in november, december and the start of january. it was one of the best seasons i can remember from 11 years of surfing around there. my wife and her sister were with us helping out with the business, so i got to surf a lot. felt very fortunate and even fit. now i'm back in bangkok and can feel my body stiffening and contracting, going back to not really fit. going to chiang mai this weekend, maybe run into you there cranked unless you're busy saving drowning children.

Lucky Al wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 22, 2019 6:32 pm

we got a lot of overhead surf in our neighbourhood in november, december and the start of january. it was one of the best seasons i can remember from 11 years of surfing around there. my wife and her sister were with us helping out with the business, so i got to surf a lot. felt very fortunate and even fit. now i'm back in bangkok and can feel my body stiffening and contracting, going back to not really fit. going to chiang mai this weekend, maybe run into you there cranked unless you're busy saving drowning children.

I'll pm you Al. Have you been there before? We can have lunch somewhere.We'll have a scooter for transport.

Well there's no surf so that's a problem. But for me there's also great downill riding up in the mountains just out of town. You should hit the huge market in the old town on Sunday, hippydom and the silk road still lives. And I love the ancient temples and all the little nooks and crannies and weird people.

BA wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 22, 2019 4:05 pm

Nowhere because I’m sick of this seemingly endless weak 2ft swell.

It really was scraping the bottom of the barrel at mid tide. Having said that, there was a guy out there on a Merrick Black Beauty.

This whole summer has been Groundhog Day. Not much good surf for sure. However, I've surfed four to six days every week. A few reasonable little banks to play on. Heaps of socialising plus I feel fit and not too sunburnt.....so although the surfs been marginal it's been a good summer for me. I'm pretty stoked with my surfing at the moment. Got a bit of inspiration from the California Vibe when I was over there.

Is that a type of omelette?