Never Trust the Waves

It was a hot Tuesday afternoon and us kids were playing a war game shooting at each other with water pistols. We also used to throw hand-grenades. They consisted of a plastic bag filled with water and in the heat it was pleasant to get one of these bombs on the head. Bugs’ dad came up to us with a white flag as if to surrender and he asked if on the weekend we would like to go to the sea to do some fishing. We all happily agreed and the old man decided that we would go on Saturday morning and come back the next day.

There was only one small snag. We had to help him to make lead-sinkers and get the rest of the fishing-tackle ready. He gave us instructions to get the old batteries from the old cars dumped in the backyard. We broke these batteries open and pulled out the wire netting, cut it into small pieces which we put into an old iron pan over the fire so as to melt the lead. The liquid lead was poured into special molds in the shape of pyramids. We fixed a wire ring on its bottom where the nylon fishing line could be attached to it and then we got the rest of the fishing tackle ready.

Very early on Saturday morning we jumped into the old man’s big white Ford. Two hours later we parked the Ford in front of the beach. The red sun was just showing above the water on the horizon. Minutes later a yellow-orange disc popped out of the water and into the sky, it was the beginning of a new day.

With our fishing rods we headed for the rocks which like a jetty went out to sea. Someone had brought nasty smelling sardines to use as bait. The old man showed us kids how to fasten the bait on the fishing hooks and where to place the sinkers. Last but not least how to cast from behind one’s back. The fishing rod was flung forward towards the sea and the rod whistled and bent like a whip. We saw sinker and bait draw a huge arch in the sky and make a small splash about eighty meters in the deep sea.

Us kids did all the same maneuvers but when it came to casting the best we could do was six meters. We tried and tried again but we seemed to shorten the distance of our cast. After many attempts I felt too tired, so I decided to take a break.

Although the sea was rough, the water was clear and cold but we dived in all the same. I shivered as I hit the water. It was so cold that after ten minutes of swimming and riding the waves, my hands and feet were numb and blue. So much so that I could hardly feel them. Nevertheless we carried on having fun with the bodyboard taking turns at riding the waves.

To survive the continuously oncoming waves you swam over the top and down the other side ready to attack the next wave that was coming up soon. What I did was simply to dive under the wave holding my breath as long as possible. I had done this many, many times but on that occasion something went wrong.

When I was under the wave a strong and unusual current got hold of my legs and pulled them upwards making me spin and I was doing cart-wheels under water. The trouble was that every time my head was down I hit the sand on the bottom with my face and the cart-wheels went on and on. From that moment on I didn’t really know what happened. All I know is that my mouth, nostrils and eyes were full of sand and my head was spinning and ached. The throbbing in my ears took on a slow motion mode and I heard a loud humming sound coming from a long distance. What happened next is a mystery: I found myself flat on my back on the sea-shore as if I was simply sun-tanning.

I sat up trying to get the sand out of my eyes. My mouth was full of sand as well so I spat furiously trying to get rid of it. The taste was lousy and the smell even worse! It was like eating a one week old dead, raw fish. I must have swallowed a lot of water because I went over and vomited my guts out. I immediately felt better. I got up on my feet and that took some effort so I started looking for the other guys. While trying to walk it must have looked as though I was drunk. The other guys saw me and started to run towards me. I leaned on the shoulders of two of my friends and we started slowly back.

I told them what had happened and I looked with surprise at their unbelieving gaze as their mouths were half open.

I said, “I thought that breaking open old car batteries was dangerous, but I would never have thought that going for a swim would be even more dangerous”!

One of the guys shouted, “let’s go and help the old man, I think he has caught a big fish, look how his fishing rod is bent like a bow”.