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Other articles or stories A Hero on the Beach The white sand beaches of Cayman are amongst the finest beaches anywhere. Normally the gentle massaging action of the waves are soothing to the beachgoers. That is, except during inclement weather , when the waves are more akin to something that would please only a surfer. During one such Nor'wester the waves were running about 12-14 feet. Nice surf rolls sucking back the water to expose the seabed that was usually seen only through a skin diving mask or a glass bottom boat. Waves like this just beg to be played in and we heard the call.*** Before long there was a fairly large number of us gathered at the beach. Some of the youngest would run down to chase the water as it receded and then turn around and run to shore as it came crashing behind them.
The older kids were body surfing by throwing theirselves into the medium sized waves that resulted when the curling waves broke close in to shore, or sea licking each other ( a playful way of flipping and using your legs to create a gigantic splash, thereby dowsing your friends -brothers -sisters whomever). It seemed that everyone was having fun except one child who unfortunately had a father who was a homosexual. With Cayman being the size that it is, and every one knowing every one and everything about everyone and even some things about you, that you didn't know, and children being what they are, they had ridiculed and ostracized the young boy for no fault of his own. So he stood there just watching everyone else, just as he always seem to stand on the fringe of life. Seeing the the waves were so much larger farther out, I began to wish for a surfboard, but back then Cayman was called "the Island that time forgot". What stores they did have, had hardly anything in them, and there were certainly no surf shops anywhere around. I decided to scout the new hotel that was being built, the "La Fountaine" (it has since been demolished) to see if I could find anything that I could use. I scoured the construction site of what was to become Cayman's premier hotel what with it's salt water swimming pool, using a 4" galvanized steel pipe supply line running out into the sea and anchored by two 55 gallon drums filled with concrete. After some time, I found a discarded piece of 2 X 12 spruce plank about 36 inches long. Figuring this would make a great bodyboard (boogey) I high tailed it back to the beach, my treasure in hand. Launching into the waves with this crude board proved difficult but I soon figured how to time it so that I could get out and catch the longest ride. I was having a great time and after about the 5th or 6th run I had mastered the makeshift board and was speeding along the face of a killer wave. With the spray in my face and my knees bent up out of the water I was having a great run and wanted to make it last as long as I could. I rode the wave further into shore than I probably should have, as the ride was about to close and the wave would become a churning mass with the power of a waterfall, sending everything down to the bottom of the seabed and tumbling it like the best commercial washing machines. I was just about to cut back and make my re-entry when suddenly directly in my path and only a couple of feet in front of me I saw the end of the galvanized pipe, being held rigid by the drums of concrete. There was no time to change course or bail,. The water was pushing me head long into the raw end of the pipe and at the fastest speed I had achieved all day. Knowing that striking the pipe at that speed would leave me impaled with a 4" hole through me, I shifted my weight in a split instance to make the 2 x 12 take the brute force. I felt the steel pipe strike squarely in the center and my body wrap around the board. Then nothing. My face in the sand, my throat burning and feeling like I was laying in vomit, I awoke to find someone pushing on on my back, hard, with small hands. Rolling over, I was struggling to figure out how I could have gone to sleep at home and woke up here on the beach in front of the La Fontaine. I twisted my head to see who had been shoving on my back. Then it came back to me, I remembered the water , the pipe and realized I had been knocked unconscious and tumbled around in the tumultuous water, until this young man who had the misfortune, of being the son of a man that gave the other children cause to make fun of him, dragged my limp body ashore and saved my life. By this time, others were beginning to gather around, one of them holding my bodyboard with a circle clearly imprinted about a 1/2 inch deep in the wood. Some were wanting to know what had happened and others saying they saw me being dragged from the water by my feet. I told them, then and there, that no matter what they thought of this young man he was a hero for saving my life. Unfortunately I am unable to even tell you his name as with us being of a different age group I never actually knew his name, but knew him only by the slurs that the other children had called him. I hope that his bravery was recognized and helped to make his life a little better. No matter what he may have been called later in life, he would always know that he was a hero. You just never know. |
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