harrison reid // maxi // bondi rescue

11 shark!

since i don't have to be at work until 2, i wake up at 8 and head to the gym. after working out for an hour i head back up and have a quick rinse in the shower and chuck on some clothes. i decide to head around to the mall and do a bit of shopping since i haven't been lately. i end up buying another plaid skirt, some plaid pants, a maroon knit sweater and another bikini. i walk back home, satisfied with my shopping and head to work.

as i approach the beach i notice that it's a fairly busy day. some of the volunteer lifeguards are scattered along the beach and i see on rhino at the south end. i head into the tower and i see harrison, ryan, reidy and deano all up there. "yooo elyse" reidy says and i laugh because i've never heard him speak in a 'gangsta' voice before. "hi" i say and is walk up to where the tower looks over the beach. harrison spins around on his chair and says hi and offers me a seat beside him. "busy?" i ask them all and i see ryan and reidy on the binos. "yeah kinda, it's been constant but we haven't had anything very major in the past hour" harrison says and just tells me about the beach today. he points out the rips and where most people have been rescued and he also mentions that someone spotted a shark about 20 minutes ago. "we haven't heard any other reports, and the guy wasn't 100% sure if it was a seal or shark so we have left it. if there is another report though, we'll send the ski out" deano says and grabs another pair of binos. "they blocked off the path to tamurama last night..." then he turns to me and gives me a wink, "because someone reported a floating body at 7pm so the police rescue headed out. they found the body and we got a call not so long ago saying the cause was suicide" he tells me. "oh really? they cordoned off the path for that?" i ask and harrison gives me a smile and shakes his head in a jokingly matter. he obviously doesn't want the guys knowing that we were hanging out together last night so he's pretending that we didn't know about the closed path. "yeah" he says and i turn to the other direction and laugh a little so no one else notices. harrison gives me a nudge and i laugh even more, catching deanos attention. "what is going on with you two" he says and the three of us laugh.

"so, where and what do you want me to do?" i ask no one in particular. "do you wanna stay in the tower? ryan and i will head to north end and check that out. i think that rip is starting to pull more people out" dean says then soon enough they are out the door leaving me harrison and reidy in the tower.

"you good this morning?" harrison asks me and i get myself comfortable in the chair in in. "yeah yeah, no problems" i say and we share a smile. reidy and i get on the binos and check the beach out while harrison has his lunch break. we hear a knock on the door and harrison deals with that while eating his lunch. i can't catch a thing he's saying but i notice he brings the guy in. "so, what's you're name?" harrison asks the man. "derek" "yeah so derek was out surfing out the back of north end and possibly saw a shark" harrison says and that gets reidy a attention. "keep an eye on the beach" he tells me while he gets more details from this man. "yeah, we might think about getting the ski out aye" reidy says. soon enough the radio starts making noises and it's deano who's positioned at north end with ryan. they tell us that a man has spotted an shark looking object in the ocean. that information is enough to get us to send out the ski. "el, harrison, you two go. i'll stay here" reidy says. i'm not allowed to be in the tower alone yet so my only option is to go on the ski and it just happens that harrison is coming too. i quickly chuck off my top and put on one of the lifeguard wetsuit tops and a lifejacket. harrison jumps on the rhino and backs it down to the water and jethro is there to help us launch it. within minutes we are heading towards north end to find this shark. i'm on the mat and harrison tells me to jump up on the ski with him so i'm higher up and can look better. we patrol the area for about 10 minutes until we get another radio call saying that there is another sighting closer to the tower. we head over there and sure enough we see it. "yeah, ski to central, chuck that shark alarm on, there's about a 10ft one lurking round out here" i radio to the tower and harrison points to his about 5 metres from the ski. i stand up, holding onto his shoulders and i see it. "copy that" reidy says and then we head the alarm ring throughout the whole beach. now harrison's and i patrol the back of the shore break to send people in to the beach. about ten minutes later the entire surf is cleared and the sand is covered with people.

harrison and i stay on the ski and try to chase the shark out of the bay. after about half an hour there is no sight of the shark and the rescue chopper has flown over and they can't spot anything.