Lifeguard Drowning: Pulled Out to Sea

A young British lifeguard travels to Spain and finds himself in mortal danger. In 1967, 28-year-old Guy Taplin arrives on the Costa del Sol seeking a fresh start. At first the days slip by in a happy haze. But when a fellow beachgoer gets caught in a riptide, Guy jumps in to help. Swept out to sea, his own chances of reaching safety are suddenly slim. And his strength is running out… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Heléna Lewis | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. Go to https://surfshark.com/survival or use code SURVIVAL at checkout to get 4 extra months of SurfsharkVPN! For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:49John Hopkins?

  It's a hot summer's day in July 1967, on Spain's southern coast. Today, the Costa del Sol is living up to its name. The shoreline is steeped in sunshine, brilliant rays glinting off the soft golden sand and azure waters of the Mediterranean. Brightly colored fishing boats bob gently on the rolling waves, followed by flocks of gulls arcing and wheeling through the blue sky as they search for food. Along the miles of pristine beaches that make up this coastline, people relax on lounges or towels, basking in the beauty of their surroundings.

• 1:30John Hopkins?

  But in the small port town of Fuengirola, the usually serene atmosphere is suddenly broken by urgent shouts. On the beach, a small crowd has gathered, facing out towards the ocean. They squint against the sun and point in horror at two figures locked together in the water. From a distance, they could almost be embracing.

• 1:56John Hopkins?

  Out in the waves, thrashing against the pull of the undertow, twenty-eight-year-old Guy Taplin tightens his grip on the woman he is trying to save, desperately attempting to keep them both above the surface of the water.

• 2:10Speaker 03

  You're in a very tumultuous situation in the sea. You're in a grip of like an animal, it feels like, you know. And you realise that you're not in control. That's the other thing as well. You've lost control of the situation.

• 2:23John Hopkins?

  Guy focuses all his energy on kicking his legs and keeping his chin above the surface. But he's fighting a losing battle. A wave rears up and crashes over his head, the briny water stinging his eyes and running down his throat.

• 2:39John Hopkins?

  Despite his best efforts, they're being pulled further out to sea, the figures on the sand growing smaller with alarming speed.

• 2:48John Hopkins?

  His strength is fading fast, and his hold on the woman starts to wane.

• 2:54John Hopkins?

  He scans the empty stretch of water around them. There is nobody to offer help.

• 3:00John Hopkins?

  Their only chance of survival is to make it back to the shore, and that possibility is rapidly vanishing.

• 3:07Speaker 03

  I remember sinking back down in the swell, and I couldn't move at all, my arms and legs. I just had no body strength, you know. You haven't got long drowning. You've only got to take a few mouthfuls of water, and you've had it, really.

• 3:26John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 3:48John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet Guy Taplin. In 1967, directionless and in search of adventure, the young man travels with his girlfriend to the south of Spain, a country going through a strange and turbulent time, still under the dictatorship of General Franco, but also enjoying a massive tourism boom. And it's in this unique setting that Englishman Guy faces a dark and dangerous episode. Settling into life on the coast, at first the days slip by in a happy haze. But when a fellow beachgoer gets caught in the pull of a sudden and powerful riptide, Guy jumps in to help. Battling against the choppy waves and strong current,

• 4:32John Hopkins?

  he quickly finds himself plunged into a desperate fight for his own life as well.

• 4:36Speaker 03

  We went straight out on this rip. The undertow had us.

• 4:40John Hopkins?

  Guy and the woman will be swept far out to sea, beyond the reach of any help. Barely able to keep their heads above water, their strength is running out.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  In that sea, and you're in the grip of something, and you read about it and see it on the telly, then it's happening to you. You're caught in this current. Everything's incredibly intense. Whatever's happening beyond the conscious mind is going into full action in a survival.

• 5:07John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

• 5:35John Hopkins?

  It's July 1967, a beautiful summer's day in the south of Spain.

• 5:41John Hopkins?

  The air is hot and dry, the dusty landscape parched by the sweltering heat that is so characteristic of the area at this time of year.

• 5:50John Hopkins?

  In the brilliant blue skies above Fuenarola, situated some twenty miles down the coast from Malaga, the sun burns fiercely, its rays bouncing off the pretty whitewashed buildings that make up this small Andalusian port town.

• 6:05John Hopkins?

  On a brush-covered hill above the settlement, the remains of a 10th-century Moorish castle overlook the rich blue waters of the Mediterranean, where the white-capped waves roll gently onto the miles of sandy beach that border the town.

• 6:21John Hopkins?

  But among the more traditional buildings, new structures are also starting to spring up: apartment blocks, hotels, and restaurants for a growing tourist trade which has begun to blossom along this picturesque coastline. In the past decade or so, increasing numbers of international holidaymakers have begun to visit the aptly-named Costa del Sol, drawn to the warm climate and beautiful shores.

• 6:47John Hopkins?

  The resulting economic boom is being felt across the country, which, still under Franco's military dictatorship, is developing with astounding speed.

• 6:58John Hopkins?

  Most tourists have come to the area for just a week or two of relaxation.

• 7:03John Hopkins?

  But there are others, such as 28-year-old Guy Taplin, who have travelled here with a less firm plan in mind.

• 7:11Speaker 03

  When you got down there, you didn't talk about what you did. You just entered the life. It wasn't a leap for me. It was just a very natural thing to do. I mean, I was free, free to do whatever I wanted.

• 7:22John Hopkins?

  Only a few days ago, Guy was in the UK, working as a lifeguard at a pool in London. When he saw some of his contemporaries drop everything and head out into the big, wide world, he was inspired. Soon Guy and his art-student girlfriend Lou decided to take the plunge by quitting their lives in England and driving to Spain.

• 7:45Speaker 03

  The other lifeguards I was working with, what they used to do was to get a car on HP, usually an American car, you know, big one, and then just clear off, not pay the things or anything, just clear off. They went down to Spain, so we thought, we'll join them down there.

• 8:01John Hopkins?

  Since arriving in Fuenarola, Guy and Lou have made the most of their new surroundings: getting to know both the locals and other tourists and finding casual work to keep some money rolling in.

• 8:13Speaker 03

  Lou got a job in an Indian restaurant, it was very unusual in Spain in that period. And I got a job as a chef, but the chef involved them cooking the food somewhere other, freezing it. So all what I had to do was, when they got the order, you take it out of the freezer, eat it up and serve it, you know, it was pretty basic. But I usually got drunk unfortunately very early and I got the sack out of that. So I was floating around on the beach.

• 8:42John Hopkins?

  With plenty of free time on their hands, Guy and Lou enjoy many restful days of sand and sun. Today is especially hot, the coastline looks particularly dazzling. Lou rolls over on the sand, exposing her hand back to the warming rays. Beside her, Guy shields his eyes and glances out at the expanse of foam-crested waves, where people paddle lazily in the surf or swim slowly out into deeper waters. It's a tranquil scene, and his previous life seems worlds away.

• 9:18Speaker 03

  I was born in 1939, in London. My dad worked at Woolwich Arsenal and it got bombed out, because they'd come up the Thames. And he had to move and he got posted to Hereford, and me and my mum went there. And I went to school there, and I suppose really, they probably weren't very fond of people from London, they thought we were all a bit cocky, and I didn't really make any friends. But even there, you know, we experienced the war.

• 9:46John Hopkins?

  Despite moving out of the capital for a time, and despite his father being unable to serve due to health reasons, the Second World War still deeply affected Guy and his family. His childhood was marred by the Blitz, and memories of it have remained with him over the decades. One particular incident still haunts him.

• 10:06Speaker 03

  In London, I went back and stayed with my aunt, and they had an Anderson shelter, which is a sort of metal thing screwed to the floor. I must have been probably towards the end of the war when they started to use flying bombs, and we got under the table, me and my aunt, and I was absolutely terrified. It's the first time as a child. I'd had disquiet, but not that sort of terrifying fear, and it came down in the next street. We went out the next day and the house had just disappeared, you know.

• 10:40John Hopkins?

  After the war ended, Guy became interested in the natural world around him, making frequent trips alone to immerse himself in the beauty and wildness of the countryside.

• 10:51John Hopkins?

  These trips helped to shape his character, fostering his sense of independence and self-sufficiency.

• 10:58Speaker 03

  Through a lot of my life, I'd been detached from those around me and really not able to adapt. But in a way, I did unconsciously, because I responded very much to nature. I used to go fishing, butterfly collecting, egg collecting. I was always out on my own as well. It was difficult to get other chaps to go out with you. So I suppose I'd either partly be conditioned to be on my own a lot, or I was that way inclined, which I tend to think. And it's a good thing and a bad thing, you know, it's always a double-edged sword, that sort of thing.

• 11:32John Hopkins?

  After leaving school at fifteen, Guy worked for a while in the post office, before doing two years of national service, one of them in Cyprus. Upon being discharged in 1960, he began looking for work.

• 11:45Speaker 03

  Jobs were pretty awful, and I did a sort of series of jobs. I ended up doing a ladies' hairdressing course, came out of that.

• 11:53Speaker 03

  Then went, got a lifeguard's job in 1962. Went through a series of LIDOS, and wind cleaning, and signing on off the dole.

• 12:08John Hopkins?

  As work didn't always grab Guy's interest, he found stimulation elsewhere, particularly at the public library.

• 12:18Speaker 03

  It was a very interesting period, because people like Kerouac, Dylan Thomas with Under Milk Wood, Salinger, Kafka. I was reading all those in the library in the wintertime. I used to go up there and just pull them off the shelf. You know, Hemingway, Jack London, all those sort of stories. Probably more read now by certain people, but they weren't then amongst the working classes.

• 12:41John Hopkins?

  It wasn't long before he discovered a trove of new art and literature. It began firing his imagination and his desire to find out more.

• 12:51Speaker 03

  I sensed it was another world. I remember going into the reading room in Leytonstone Library and they had Studio Magazine and they had pictures of Hotne. This must have been 1960 when he did those San Francisco pictures of the swimming pool. And I thought, wow, they're really good, you know. And there was a lot of energy about them.

• 13:08John Hopkins?

  With the advent of the counterculture, Guy soon found himself immersed in the excitement and hedonism of swinging 60s London. A revolutionary melting pot of clubs, drugs, music, art, and fashion.

• 13:23Speaker 03

  It was amazing. And so I entered that world. And then I met this girlfriend at Hornsey Lido where I was working as a lifeguard. And she was in the art world. She was an art student at Hornsey. Up to then, I'd been basically a working class boy. In those days, there was no crossover.

• 13:41John Hopkins?

  But his social circle quickly widened. Working at the swimming pool, or Lido, gave Guy the opportunity to meet all sorts of strange and interesting people he may never have encountered otherwise.

• 13:53Speaker 03

  Swimming pools are funny places. They attract odd people. It was that sort of weird environment, you know. And I'd worked at a lot of pools and there was a lot of weird things going on. Some quite extreme things. People dying and all sorts of things, you know. Well, looking back on it, it attracted people that were always on the move.

• 14:15John Hopkins?

  By the time he was in his late twenties, Guy found himself adrift and purposeless, unsure of how he wanted to live the rest of his life, or what he wanted to do.

• 14:26Speaker 03

  Most people I grew up with at that period got a job, or a trade was the thing you got. Because it was secure, you guaranteed a wage. The things to get was Fleet Street on the press, Meat Porter, another one, Lighterman on the Thames, which I nearly got, but it was too far after for me to travel. Box was another one, another good job. But I just floated from one thing to another. I had no sense of direction. There was nothing in the working class. The only way you could get out of it was to be a footballer or a boxer.

• 14:56John Hopkins?

  Guy's lack of direction may come with problems, but it also means he has fewer commitments, and more freedom than many to reinvent himself, try something new. So when some of his fellow lifeguards decide to travel down to Spain, there is little holding him back from joining them.

• 15:23John Hopkins?

  Reclining on the beach in the Costa del Sol, Guy and Lu stretch out on their towels, their bodies cushioned by the soft sand as the chatter of locals and the crash of the waves echo around the sun-kissed shoreline. He sighs, enjoying the warmth on his face and the cloudless blue sky above him.

• 15:43John Hopkins?

  This is the life.

• 15:46John Hopkins?

  But suddenly, the calm is interrupted.

• 15:50John Hopkins?

  Seemingly out of nowhere, the usually serene sea changes, the waves growing large and wild as they thunder onto the sand. And then, somebody calls Guy's name.

• 16:03Speaker 03

  I'm on the beach in Fingarola. There's a bar next to us, you know, where we used to sit around. It's a big surf, very big surf running. There was no one on it. And I'm sitting there, and it's hot. I'm sitting there with Lu. And this guy comes flying down the beach and says, "Is somebody drowning further down?" But he must have known that I was a lifeguard.

• 16:28John Hopkins?

  Guy leaps to his feet and follows the man back up the beach, the warm sand sticking to his toes as they run. It's hard going in the heat, and by the time they reach a small crowd gathering on the shore, they're panting.

• 16:41John Hopkins?

  The air fills with confused shouts, Spanish and English mingling as the onlookers point in mounting concern to a small, lone figure struggling in the water some way out. She's moving quickly away from the land, dragged out into the sea by some powerful, unseen force. In the chaos, someone fetches a rope and harness kept in a local bar for emergencies. They shove it towards Guy, then gesture urgently towards the woman in the water.

• 17:12John Hopkins?

  As the only trained lifeguard on hand, it seems the task of rescuing her has fallen to him.

• 17:19Speaker 03

  And I thought, "Well, why am I getting it?" You know, I'm an eye on my lifeguard, but, I mean, they obviously thought I was gonna do it, and I did. And I put it on, and I knew nothing about diving under the waves.

• 17:32John Hopkins?

  Guy wraps the harness around his chest. He can do little else. Out in the sea, the woman's head keeps sinking under the surf, and without help she will likely drown. Besides, everyone's expectations are on him.

• 17:47Speaker 03

  I thought, "Oh my god, you know, I've got to do this," you know, and I really didn't want to, but I did.

• 17:54John Hopkins?

  Suppressing his nerves, Guy secures the harness. Several people in the crowd grasp hold of the rope, readying themselves to pull him back in once he reaches the struggling woman.

• 18:06John Hopkins?

  Then, he heads for the water.

• 18:11Speaker 03

  I could see this woman. She was right out beyond the surf. What happened was, I went out and there's big, big, big waves, and you thought you ain't got bashed back out, but the undertow carried you out.

• 18:24John Hopkins?

  As soon as he plunges into the sea, Guy is caught in the grip of a surprisingly ferocious current. Within seconds, he's carried away in the swell, tossed around as if he were nothing more than a cork in the ocean. This rescue mission is going to be even harder than he thought.

• 18:42Speaker 03

  You're in a very tumultuous situation in the sea. You know, the current's got you. You're in a grip of like an animal, it feels like. You realise that you're not in control. You've lost control of the situation.

• 19:04John Hopkins?

  It's July 1967, on Spain's Costa del Sol.

• 19:10John Hopkins?

  For the most part, the waters of the Mediterranean are relatively warm and calm at this time of year.

• 19:16John Hopkins?

  But today, large waves are breaking up on the shore, and a strong swell is churning the usually placid sea.

• 19:24John Hopkins?

  And, in the turbulent sea off the coast of Fuherola, two figures are being carried away from land with horrifying speed, caught in the pull of a fast and powerful current. Guy Taplin battles his way through the waves, trying to reach the woman he entered the water to save.

• 19:41John Hopkins?

  Although he's worked as a lifeguard at Lido's and Pools back in the UK, he's unprepared for the unpredictable might of the sea.

• 19:51Speaker 03

  I didn't know anything about undertows and rips. I'd worked in a lido. And if you can swim, you could save somebody. It's in a lido. It's a piece of cake, you know. Usually it's a kid. Usually they're in three or four foot of water. So you can stand up and you just pull them out. The sea is another thing altogether.

• 20:13John Hopkins?

  Guy and the woman he's trying to help are caught in a riptide. A fast, dangerous current caused by tidal movements. It flows away from the land and pulls everything in its path out to sea. They can extend for hundreds, sometimes thousands of feet, with potentially deadly consequences to unsuspecting swimmers.

• 20:36John Hopkins?

  Guy fights his way towards the struggling woman as the waves rear up and crash down on top of him. The rope attached to his harness stretches out behind him, his one flimsy lifeline to the small crowd of onlookers back on land.

• 20:51John Hopkins?

  Eventually, he is close enough to get hold of the woman.

• 20:55Speaker 03

  I mean, you're just in a very big swell. You're going up and down, you know. I grabbed hold of her. She must have weighed about fourteen stone, early fifties. And she was Spanish. She didn't say anything to me. And I don't remember saying anything to her. I just grabbed hold of her.

• 21:11John Hopkins?

  Wordlessly, the Spanish woman clings to Guy, her fingernails digging into his arm.

• 21:17John Hopkins?

  He wraps the harness around her to bind them together, then turns towards the shore and signals to be hauled in.

• 21:25John Hopkins?

  The crowd on the beach heaves on the rope, dragging the combined weight of two people against the pull of the riptide.

• 21:33John Hopkins?

  A human chain begins to form on the sand, snaking out into the surf to try to grab Guy and the woman as soon as they are brought into shallow water.

• 21:42John Hopkins?

  The harness cuts deep into his chest as the rope strains taut, making it hard for him to breathe. Slowly, the two of them are hauled closer to the land and to safety.

• 21:55Speaker 03

  They formed a human chain into the water. We got really close, probably four or five foot away. She was virtually on the beach. And they grabbed hold of her. And then I was pulled out.

• 22:08Speaker 03

  The rope broke.

• 22:11John Hopkins?

  It happens in a heartbeat. The seemingly solid line is suddenly severed. The frayed ends left flapping uselessly in the waves.

• 22:21John Hopkins?

  Having been stored in a beachside bar for years, unneeded and unused, the rope has gone rotten and snapped.

• 22:29John Hopkins?

  Hands reach towards Guy and the woman, trying to pull them from the grasp of the current. But it's too late. Instantly, the power of the riptide is upon them once again. The woman is dragged from the hands of her rescuers, and the pair of them are swept back out to sea, their chance of rescue cruelly snatched away.

• 22:49Speaker 03

  We went straight out again on this rip.

• 22:53Speaker 03

  The undertow had us. I was carried out with her, through the waves, up and down, and then we were back where we started in the big swell.

• 23:05John Hopkins?

  In a single moment, the situation has changed drastically. Pulled back out into deep water by the riptide, and with nothing now tethering them to the shore, they are truly beyond the bounds of help.

• 23:18John Hopkins?

  As they are dragged further away from land, the reality of what's just happened begins to sink in.

• 23:25Speaker 03

  Everything's very brilliant. I mean, strangely enough, incredibly alive. I mean, so it should be, really, because everything in you at that point is very rapidly is trying to assimilate what's going on and is preparing you for trying to survive. Very quickly, like seconds. I think from the minute of being carried out, you're not in a conscious state, really, not in the normal way, where you've got time for reflection or anything like that. Everything's incredibly intense. Whatever's happening beyond the conscious mind is going into full action, you know, for survival.

• 24:01John Hopkins?

  But there is little he can do against the power of the sea.

• 24:05John Hopkins?

  Still holding on to the Spanish woman, Guy kicks hard below the waterline, desperate to keep them both above the surface as waves crash over their heads.

• 24:15John Hopkins?

  The effort is overwhelming.

• 24:19Speaker 03

  She's crashing over you and it's going up your mouth and in your mouth and all that and you're holding on to her and it's you're in a terrible turmoil. Obviously, I was afraid. When you get into those situations, everything's happening very quickly. That's what it feels like, anyway. And your mental state has definitely changed. I mean, you're on the edge of panicking. And that's the second time in my life where I'd felt the same thing as being with my arm under this Anderson shelter in Wood Creek.

• 24:49John Hopkins?

  The same terror he felt as a child during the blitz grips him once again. Thrashing against the riptide, his strength is being sapped. Salt water runs down his face, stinging his eyes and making his throat raw and red. As the seconds turn into minutes and they are pulled further and further from the shore, their chances of being rescued grow slimmer. Guy spits out a mouthful of briny water and looks back at the yellow stretch of the beach dotted with small figures. Many aren't even aware of the commotion and are happily getting on with their day, relaxing on the beach. It's a disturbing juxtaposition.

• 25:38Speaker 03

  I saw people playing ball, you know, running about. Everything was normal. They just went on with their life on the beach. I remember sinking back down into the swell and I couldn't move at all, my arms and legs. I'd never been in that position. It's like when you're weightlifting, you might do 10 reps, then another 10. The last couple of reps, you can hardly move your arms. But it was that, I just had no body strength. It was just like I was a torso with head on it.

• 26:10John Hopkins?

  Guy is entirely spent. He cannot go on like this.

• 26:16Speaker 03

  That's when I let her go.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  I didn't think about it, you know, it was an intuitive move. I just let her go.

• 26:24John Hopkins?

  Entirely depleted, he submits to the sea. Letting the waves crash over him as the current drags him away from the woman.

• 26:35John Hopkins?

  Neither of them has any strength left in their limbs.

• 26:39John Hopkins?

  It seems all they can do now is wait for the inevitable end.

• 26:43Speaker 03

  You haven't got long drowning, you've only got to take a few mouthfuls of water and you've had it really, you know.

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• 27:46John Hopkins?

  Amidst the turbulent waves, Guy drifts further away from the woman. The riptide is in total control of their limp bodies. The movement of their arms and legs becomes smaller and smaller, weaker and weaker.

• 28:03John Hopkins?

  It's so tempting to stop fighting.

• 28:07John Hopkins?

  Another torrent of salt water crashes over his head. For a few seconds, his vision blurs and he squeezes his eyelids shut.

• 28:16John Hopkins?

  He opens them again and blinks, scanning the water and taking in the debris caught in the pull of the riptide.

• 28:24John Hopkins?

  And then he sees something floating straight towards him.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  So we're both bobbing about out there. And I'm looking around in this swell and there's this sort of deck chairs, balls, plastic, bits of paper floating about, loads of stuff, you know. And suddenly, this lilo's come up.

• 28:44John Hopkins?

  In a flash, a sliver of hope.

• 28:49John Hopkins?

  The drag of the riptide has ensnared a long mattress-like inflatable designed for lounging on the water. Just seconds before, it looked like the current may kill them. Now it has sent them a potential salvation.

• 29:05Speaker 03

  From me thinking, hang on a minute, this is not going very well, and letting her go, I would think probably ten, twenty seconds, you know, and then there's a lilo turning up. And you could look at it both ways, that it was a lilo floating out there, inevitable really. But was it? In that part of the beach? Were there any other lilos?

• 29:27John Hopkins?

  Guy isn't about to pass up this piece of extraordinary good fortune. There's no time to waste.

• 29:34John Hopkins?

  As the lilo zigzags towards him, he launches himself at the inflatable, his weary arms outstretched.

• 29:42John Hopkins?

  His palms find the plastic and he tightens his grip on it, exhaustion and relief washing over him as the float takes his weight.

• 29:52John Hopkins?

  But he can't rest yet. Barely pausing for breath, Guy kicks his leaden legs and slowly flounders his way towards the Spanish woman, his muscles crying out with every movement.

• 30:05John Hopkins?

  Eventually, he gets close enough for her to grab hold of the lilo as well, and together they cling on for dear life, their chests heaving.

• 30:14Speaker 03

  We held on to it, and of course, it's so buoyant, you know, it was fully inflated. The wave, it picked us up and just carried us in. It was amazing, you know, hanging on to this lilo, both of us for grim death.

• 30:34John Hopkins?

  Incredibly, within moments of finding the float, the pair seemed to drift out of the rip's pull, escaping the strength of the powerful current.

• 30:45John Hopkins?

  Once out of its grip, they're swiftly carried towards the shore by the large waves, back towards the small crowd waiting anxiously on the sand.

• 30:54Speaker 03

  They'd formed a chain again, and they took her first. They got her out, and I remember this feeling of total isolation and terrified. I was terrified of being taken out again to that place and re-experience what I'd just been through. And a guy held his hand out to me and got hold of me, and I remember saying to him, "Don't let me go."

• 31:20John Hopkins?

  The man's hold doesn't falter. He tightens his grip on Guy's arm and pulls him from the water.

• 31:27John Hopkins?

  Soaked to the skin and exhausted from his ordeal, Guy lurches onto the sand. His muscles are quivering, his legs reduced to jelly. He's barely able to walk.

• 31:40Speaker 03

  I was very, very frightened. But he did, he pulled me out, and I staggered up the beach. And somebody called me over and said, "There's somebody else you've got to have a look at."

• 31:51John Hopkins?

  Before he's even had a chance to recover, he is led further up the beach to a man lying face up on the sand. He kneels beside the figure.

• 32:02John Hopkins?

  But it's quite clear, there is nothing he can do.

• 32:06Speaker 03

  He was dead, and his eyes were all full of sand. There was a newspaper up there, and I picked it up. He put it over his face. The sort of thing when you're young, you've seen people do on the telly and all that. You cover their face, you know. I then got up and just said, "He's dead," you know. Nobody said anything, I can remember. And I went further down the beach, and there was someone giving mouth to mouth to a woman that was being sick, another Spanish woman.

• 32:32John Hopkins?

  The sight of the sea's other victims is sobering. A stark indication of just how dangerous the riptide was and how close Guy came to his end.

• 32:44John Hopkins?

  After reuniting with Lou, he stumbles away from the beach to rest, the sound of the waves still rumbling behind him.

• 33:01John Hopkins?

  The next day Guy starts trying to process the whole experience, but it isn't easy.

• 33:07Speaker 03

  I think really what happened to me, I must have been in real shock without knowing it. Because people say to you, you know, you're in shock and you don't know you're in shock. It's a weird, very strange feeling. And all I remember after that was next day someone saying to me, the guy that was dead was the owner of the local supermarket.

• 33:26John Hopkins?

  The deadly riptide causes scars within a small community reverberating through the idyllic coastal town.

• 33:34John Hopkins?

  Though despite claiming at least one life, it isn't widely reported on.

• 33:39Speaker 03

  I don't know why I didn't hear about it afterwards, you know. I mean, in this country, you'd hear about it, it'd be on the news. Because that was just one beach. It was all rucked down that Spanish bit there. A big sea was running, other people would have been getting stuck as well. I don't know what the answer to that is.

• 33:56John Hopkins?

  In fact, he never even finds out the name of the woman he rescued from the water, nor what happened to her afterwards. To this day, there are elements of this story that remain difficult for Guy to fathom.

• 34:09Speaker 03

  That was so peculiar. When I think back on it, I mean, you think that she obviously had friends on the beach presumably, probably her family. What were they doing while this was going on? I mean, I've not thought about this before. What were they doing? What was everyone doing? She was out there, everyone could see her. They all sat there, didn't do anything, nobody did anything.

• 34:28John Hopkins?

  As for Guy, he spends a lot of time in the aftermath of the event, thinking about what happened. He feels a range of often contrasting emotions.

• 34:37Speaker 03

  I mean, I condemn myself a bit, you know, for letting this poor woman go out there. Still, you have to forgive yourself really. And I thought to myself, yeah, I did save her though. We all think we're heroes when we're young, until you get a chance to prove it. But often in those situations, you can't think. In those emergencies, you hear people say, I buckled down and thought, I've got to get out of this one. In my experience, you don't get that chance. You're in frenzy, panic. I thought I was probably immune to deep trauma. And up to then, I suppose I had been. And that was probably the beginning of me, if you could say, coming unstuck.

• 35:21Speaker 03

  You know, I wasn't in a good place.

• 35:24John Hopkins?

  Soon after Guy decides to leave Spain and return home. Sadly, his relationship doesn't last.

• 35:33John Hopkins?

  Seeking another fresh start back in England, he begins to explore his creativity. And before long, he's working in fashion, making and selling belts and bags.

• 35:44John Hopkins?

  Initially, he achieves some measure of success, but fashions change quickly.

• 35:50Speaker 03

  It was very much the end of the hippie period, and it suddenly changed back into French fashion, really, you know, proper Chanel and all that sort of stuff, way beyond anything I could do or would be interested in. And it was a bit of a crisis point for me. I then decided I'd got to get out of the fashion business and got a job as a labourer in Regent's Park.

• 36:14John Hopkins?

  It's peaceful work, surrounded by greenery and wildlife.

• 36:19John Hopkins?

  After six months of labouring, he starts to look after the birds in the Royal Park. And soon, his creative side is inspired again. He begins making sculptures of creatures. His work attracts attention, and he starts selling his creations. In the decades since, he has become a well-known and respected artist, whose work is shown and sold at exhibitions across the country.

• 36:45John Hopkins?

  Today, having married, settled down, and found his sense of purpose, Guy is able to better reflect on his experiences in Spain all those years ago and on the unlikely piece of good fortune that allowed him to survive.

• 37:01Speaker 03

  If you wanted to call it divine intervention, I think life, put it there, that line, for me, that's how I see it. And it's not an ego thing. I think life had a purpose for me, and I think it probably created that situation as well, in a way. And anyone listening thinks the unbar me, but that's what it felt like. That's all I can say. I don't deeply believe it, but it made a big mark on me, obviously. I think trauma does.

• 37:31John Hopkins?

  In the six decades since his encounter with the riptide, Guy has had ample time to experience the many highs and lows of living, and has remained staunchly determined to feel all of the accompanying emotions, both the bad and good.

• 37:46Speaker 03

  You can't go around thinking I'm going to run into something any minute, like a mad bull charging up to go step off the curb and hit by a bus, which you can't outrun very easily. I think it's very good to be aware. I think fear, anxiety, stress, depression, they're horrible, but they teach you a lot about life. They take you right to the edge.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  I'm not a brave person at all. I really am not. And the only reason I confront the more painful side of my life is that I know if I don't, it's going to get the better of me and stop me living.

• 38:34John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories, a tale of utter mayhem in the flooded mountains of Myanmar.

• 38:41John Hopkins?

  In 2024, Joel Hoffman is living and working in the Southeast Asian country, as is his elder brother. But when a tropical typhoon unleashes catastrophic flooding on their quiet rural town, the siblings will find themselves thrust into a terrifying new position of responsibility, trying to rescue as many locals as they can from the deluge. They'll face collapsing buildings, hidden hazards, and utter pandemonium.

• 39:08John Hopkins?

  And when the flood cuts off their only route back home, the stakes are raised once again. It's time to sink or swim.

• 39:16John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen today without waiting and without adverts by joining Noiser Plus. Hit the link in the episode description.