Im still not sure whether its a good idea to tell this story or not. Probably not. Its def NOT made for ears older than 80. That is, granma will without doubt be better off not knowing. (Prob mum as well). BUT. To start with. I'm FINE! So let's take it from there.
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Yday, me and my friend Tom went to Tweed Valley with a double kayak and were going out abt 800-1000m to Cook Island. The weather conditions were fine in the morning and the water really calm. Plus the island was amazing! Saw thousands of seagull babies newly hatched and sea turtles when snorkling on the reef around the island. Stunning!
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Spend a few hours on the island before we decided to head back. Conditions didn't look too bad and we were aiming to sort of zic zac back since the waves were coming in from the side. It was even pretty relaxing and Tom told be a story about a man who kayaked from NZ to the Australian coast during 30days. But who ended up being eaten by a shark on his last day of the journy when he was expected to arrive and the whole celebration welcome party was already set up on the beach for him.
In the end of that story, a wave was rising behind us and we decided we were better of catching it. However, it was hit by another wave from another direction so we went of really fast and were actually on top of the wave when it started to break. So our kayak pretty much went nose down 90degrees and we were thrown out. I was just underneath the kayak and got hit in the head pretty hard.
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Even after this happened. It wasn't too bad. The kayak and my paddles were floating away in the waves and Tom went off to collect them. He managed to get back into the kayak and came back to me. At this time, we were still joking about that we both lost our sun glasses in the waves and Tom told me to get back into the kayak.
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However in that very second the whole water turned completely crazy. Waves were coming from all directions and I just couldn't get back in. Held on to the kayak until a new massive wave came in which separated me and Tom. He drifted of to the cliffs much faster than I did.
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At this stage, I was still pretty calm and started to focus on whether it was a better idea to try to get thrown onto the cliffs or try to swim away from them. Australians who are brought up with this pretty much know what to do. Its harder for us internationals. Since the cliffs were really sharp and slippery and the waves just growing bigger I decided I had to get as far away from them as possible. So I started to paddle away from the cliffs with all my energy. I thought nothing except "I need to get away from here". So my plan was to go back out and then sort of come around the cliffs and just be washed up on the beach. But I realized pretty soon that I was just getting closer and closer to the cliffs with every wave that hit me. And then 3 massive waves hit me in a row and I looked to the right to see Tom thrown off the kayak again abt 100 meters away from me. In that momant, I started to panic cause I realized I had no chance of making it and I started to get really tired. I had probably just been out of the kayak for abt 10 min but constantly fighting 3m high waves is really hard.
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The thought of sharks being in the water had luckily still not crossed my mind, despite the story Tom was just telling me minutes before we got thrown off. If I would ave pictured a shark in that momant I would have started to breath in way more water than I already did. Anyway. I started to realize that it wasn't a chance I would make it. And I looked up on the cliffs and saw a few people standing there watching me. I sort of thought that maybe they can get help so I started to wave to them but they all were just poining out the sea so I turned around. Heard a voice and saw a red little boat with two lifeguards in. The second later I felt this very strong hand around my stomach and suddenly I was in the boat. The only thing I could say was "I love you guys" which I will remember I repeated a few times on the way back.
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The guy was pushing me down and the girl went off to collect Tom who was with the kayak a bit further away on the cliffs. He was a bit better off though since the waves he had managed to get up on was a bit more protected from the waves so he actually managed to walk up the cliffs and eventually ended up on the beach behind them, where also the kayak and most of our stuff ended up eventually.
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The ride back to the beach was as rough as the rest of the story. At one point, we got hit by a massive wave that made the whole lifeboat stand up 90degrees...again. I have no idea how we did not fall out, cause I was basically holding on to two small strings on the boat. But we stayed in and later on I was safe on the beach. Dizzy, exhausted, thirsty. But very happy! Tom ended up with a pretty scratched body since he ended up on the cliffs and the kayak got a bit ripped as well but we were both good. The ambulance stuff came down to check blood pressure etc and then we were free to go.
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I was pretty torn between wheter I should tell you or not. It's pretty hard for me as well to realized what actually happened and how bad it could have ended. The fact that life guards even exist didn't cross my mind when I was out there and it didn't cross my mind until I was actually on the boat. These people are voluntering, doing this amazing work on their free time with no payment what so ever. They rely on the public's donations so from now on, every time I walk past life savers (who usually collect money at a lot of different places) I'm gonna fill their money boxes with all that I have. I am just so thankful for these guys being there and turning up just in the same moment as I would probably really start panicing since I just realized I had no chance of making it. All love and cred to them!
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Also, they told us the waves quickly had picked up that afternoon and the weather conditions just changed very suddenly. So it wasn't us picking a really bad day. We were just really unlucky.
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Thats my very adventurous weekend story anyway. Remember I am fine and I would never have taken a risk like this if I even would have realized it was a risk. I was terrified of waves and water before and had a huge respect. I never hardly went into the water between the flags when it used to be high waves. So that respect is even bigger now and I will never put myself in a similar situation ever again so you dont have to be worried for me. I just wanted everyone to know what an amazing job the australian lifeguard service are doing and how easy it is to appreciate this when something like this happen.
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So I guess this is true: "The thin line between a good experience and a serious accident is whether you can walk away from it in one piece and are able to tell the story"
