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Wednesday, July 09, 2008, 17:36
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.
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