Well, it is heroic, funny, and sad ....

I was a life saver for 2 years at Currumbin Vikings SLSC on the Gold Coast, Australia.

While training for my bronze medallion (in January 1982), a whole group of us were doing resuscitation training on the beach - near the waters edge. Between breaths, I happened to glance up to look at the dunes about 150 metres away, and I noticed a beach umbrella flapping violently in the strong breeze.

Just then, the beach umbrella ripped out of the ground and went cart wheeling across the beach - with it's nasty metal end stabbing at the air and sand. I looked where the umbrella was going, and about 500 metres further up the beach was an old man sitting on his own - there were only a few others on the beach at that time.

I don't know how, but I knew in an instant that the umbrella was heading for him. I yelled and pointed to the other life savers who were only about 50 metres from the umbrella to run after and grab the fast moving umbrella. They just stared at me with open jaws and dumb looks on their faces, as did the senior life savers and instructors. Other Life Savers came out of the club house to see what I was screaming about, and even they just stood there.

So, I sprang upright (from my resuscitation dummy), and sprinted towards the old man.

The sand was soft, and I ran and ran and ran, and my heart was pounding in my chest and my eyes were watering. Everything moved in slow motion. Except for the umbrella, which was converging on the old man with fast and deadly accuracy. I kept sprinting as fast as I could, but after 500 metres of hard running on soft sand, the pain and fatigue in my body was increasing.

The umbrella and I converged on the old man in the exact same instant. I dived and grabbed the sharp end of the umbrella just as it was about to stab into the old man's chest. I caught it just inches away from him.

As I stood there doubled up with pain and panting, I looked down at the old man, sitting there on his beach towel. He looked at me, and I was expecting him to say "thanks for saving my life", or "great job" or something. Instead he looked at me with dull, unfocussed eyes and quietly said "Fuck Off !!".

I was stunned !! I was so stunned I just walked away.

I dragged the umbrella back to the owner about 500 metres away, and she didn't even realise what had happened, and I was too exhausted and stunned to explain what I had done, and what her umbrella had almost done.

I then returned to my Life Saving training, and I was expecting a Hero's Welcome from all the Life Savers standing around - nearly all the club had seen the incident.

But, nothing was said, not even a "thanks" or a "well done" was heard. Everybody just averted their eyes and not a word was said.

About a year later, some Life Savers were bragging about some of their rescues, and I brought up my Umbrella Rescue, but all of them claimed not to remember - even my instructors and the others who I knew were on the beach that day and saw the whole thing claimed not to remember it.

The Moral of the Story : If you perform a heroic deed, make sure you stand up and scream it to the world until people take notice - otherwise nobody will ever say thanks or take any notice or remember !