Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Ocean Dwellers











Into the sea ...
Stormboy's father and I watched him compete in the Surf Lifesaving Club's Open Water Swim on Sunday morning. Stormboy would just die if I posted the photo of his (buff) self of thirteen years emerging from the waves - but that is him in the last shot, rounding the final marker for the run home.

I was so proud of the boy! Like me, team sports leave him quite cold. Our frailty lies in having no hunger for the ball - if you actually get hold of it - every other bastard is gonna jump on you and wrestle it back. Stormboy has found his athletic niche in those steady, meditative laps of the pool and understanding the power of the breaking wave.

As a babe, he wriggled out from every name we tried to pin on him. When he was three weeks old, an Aboriginal woman sat next to me in the park and asked what he was called.
Rueben ...
Sonny ...
Joshua ...
"He doesn't have a name yet. He's a tricky one." I told her.
She snorted and looked at me. "He's got no name? You gotta give him a name!"
Another week later and he was annointed with the name of the ocean dwellers of Celtic legend. It was perfect. And so it goes.
Water water ... and into the sea.
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11 comments:

  1. Tom StephensonJanuary 19, 2011 at 4:39 AM

    Well done, that boy.

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  2. Tom StephensonJanuary 19, 2011 at 4:43 AM

    P.S. Whatever happened to David Gulpilil?

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  3. Dr Mad FishJanuary 19, 2011 at 8:04 AM

    Nice :) Well done Stormboy.......I wish my parents had named me 'Storm', it would have suited me.

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  4. sarah toaJanuary 19, 2011 at 8:24 AM

    Yes! Absolutely Michelle. Gulpilil is still around Tom. The last movie I saw him in was the Tracker and also Rabbit Proof Fence.

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  5. Tom StephensonJanuary 19, 2011 at 8:55 AM

    Oh. I wonder if he regrets shagging Jenny Agatter...

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  6. ciaranlJanuary 19, 2011 at 4:27 PM

    God I miss that that beach, that water. I did surf life saving there, was a clubbie back in '74, '75. Was great on a surf ski. Never graduated from the coolite though, couldn't quite progress to fibro status. Just didn't have the knack..

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  7. ciaranlJanuary 19, 2011 at 4:31 PM

    Was altogether better at chasing down a football, as it turns out. Went from peroxide hair and sharkstooth earring to ripple sole DB's and black t-shirt pretty much overnight.

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  8. sarah toaJanuary 19, 2011 at 6:42 PM

    We forced Stormboy through a season of football. My reasoning was "He's got a footballer's body." Wrong. Well he does but he would see the ball heading for him, put his hands in his pockets and step aside.

    I totally get his reasoning but it didn't make him very popular within the footy clique.

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  9. Dr Mad FishJanuary 19, 2011 at 9:05 PM

    A boy after my own heart. I don't get team sports either. It's lilke I say to Robin: why don't they just give everyone a ball and then they can stop arguing about it.

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  10. sontagJanuary 25, 2011 at 6:40 AM

    Well done Stormboy!

    There can be a kick and thrash element to those Open Water swims...emerging from the tangle of swimmers into the open blue is its own reward.

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  11. nà from the treehouseFebruary 1, 2011 at 5:14 PM

    Well done indeed, and well done to you for not giving him a name straight away - who says you have to? ...names find you when the time is right.. :)

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