see slideshow at
http://hurley-pro-trestles-2013.blogspot.com/2014/09/hall-of-shame-trestles-hurley-2014.html
9/16/14
and/or OC (State parks) lifeguard.
I
took a swim north of the competition area today (9/16/14) & suddenly a
lifeguard with his little red flotation device came swimming out to me acting
as if I was in distress. I calmly told him "I'm fine" & "I
don't need to be rescued." And he replied, "You appear to be a weak
swimmer, there's a riptide..."blah blah blah. In fact, what this was all
about is probably somebody with binoculars (they had been sternly admonishing
surfers on the other side to stay out of the competition area all morning, even
threatening law enforcement if they didn't comply) in the Hurley booth saw me
drifting a little south towards the competition area & instead of them
kindly asking me to swim a little further "upstream" they decided to
use the pretense of a rescue & had to add insult
to injury by calling me a "weak swimmer." I might add that
I swim out to an offshore buoy (several hundred yards) & back on a periodic
basis at Corona del Mar. I do have a bit of a permanent shoulder injury that
causes me to switch from freestyle to sidestroke on a periodic basis &
maybe makes my freestyle form appear a bit unorthodox but nonetheless, since
when did lifeguards make "rescues" based on swimmer's style rather
than actual need? I sensed the lifeguard was acting on orders from somebody
else,...he virtually pleaded for me to come to shore, which was what I was in
the process of doing anyways, but I was also cooling off & enjoying just
floating a bit. It really takes some of the enjoyment away from the beach
experience when lifeguards become too nervous. It makes everybody nervous, often
unnecessarily so. You don't need to be a powerful swimmer most of the time to
swim in the ocean. If you think you can defeat the waves by being stronger than
them, you will lose. More important is finesse & patience & ability to
stay afloat. Occasionally, it helps to use brute strength to power towards the
beach, but most people know, it’s not a matter of strength that will help you
escape a riptide, but temporarily going with the flow.Anyways, there was not
much of a riptide at the moment, if at all. I sensed this was
"political" & I was being used as a
pawn,so that others would see the
drama & think it was dangerous or wrong to swim there. Funny thing is, it
didn't work. People saw me enjoying the water & as I exited suddenly there
were at least 20 others splashing in
the
cool water on the 100 degree day.
