THE view through a photographer's lens at Sennen Beach on

Saturday made him “stand and stare in utter disbelief”.

Jeremy Williamson, who was taking photographs of the

treacherous stormy conditions in the harbour with waves

crashing against the harbour wall, said he was aghast to see

how oblivious people were to the dangers.

“I saw a family of five standing not five feet from the

harbour wall and not far from them was a woman clutching the

hand of a small child. I could not believe people didn't

realise the dangers.”

However, it was the sight of two teenage boys running up and

down the harbour wall that was enough to “make his hair stand

on end”.

“The small harbour wall was being overwhelmed by a very

heavy sea swell, driven by strong winds and there were two

teenagers dodging the waves.

“I understand that being young they are clueless to the

dangers but if one of them had gone down the other side of the

harbour wall they never would have got back out. There's no way

he would have had the strength. I couldn't believe the sheer

complacency.”

Kelly Keating, RNLI beach safety programmes manager,

referred to the practice as “wave dodging” where someone tries

to challenge the force of the wave by either running across its

path, for example across a harbour wall, or from the shoreline

out towards the sea and then retreating.

"The RNLI strongly advises people not to wave dodge and has

a pro-active approach to educating children about beach safety

with several school initiatives.

“We also visit dozens of schools throughout Cornwall and

Devon each year to give beach safety talks,” she said.