NSW Ambulance Inspector Carolyn Parish said the circumstances were “extraordinary.”
Four weeks ago, a surfer in his late-20s leaving the water at northern suburban suburb Dee Why was hit by lightening. Ten minutes later an elderly woman, standing under a tree in her yard was also struck. Both were transferred to nearby hospitals in serious and critical condition.
Yesterday, the surfer, Josh Bush, who survived after his brother performed CPR he’d learned on the television show Bondi Rescue, was released from hospital.
According to news.com.au:
NSW Ambulance Inspector Carolyn Parish said the circumstances were “extraordinary” and credited the first responders. “This is the first time I have ever come across two lightning strikes within 10 minutes – it’s terrifying,” she said in a statement.
“How you react to being hit by lightning depends on the circumstances and where you have been hit. “Most people, however, will go into cardiac arrest so those first moments of CPR are vital.”
And lightening… ugh.
I have been out in the water before, surfing alongside Derek Rielly in fact, when bolts shot from the sky and hit Cardiff by the Sea’s Pacific horizon then moved closer to where we were putting on a very wonderful show. I had assumed, I suppose, that getting hit in the water was a rare thing and didn’t hurry to get out of the water but have never lived in a place where electrical storms are regular occurrences.
What is protocol?
What is the right thing to do and wrong thing to do other than standing ramrod straight in a field?
Damned lightening.
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Heard a sciency guy on the radio a week or two back saying that lightning hitting water only affects within about a 30m radius. But, because you are poking out of it, you are likely to attract strikes being the highest point. (He was talking about being in a boat in the water, and said that theoretically the safest place was in the water away from your boat).
I was surfing at Eloura Beach, Cronulla, one arvo as a storm rammed in from the south east. Nice, 2′ glassy peaks with one other bloke. As the lightning and gut rumbling thunder came closer, we started getting a bit antsy, but neither of us wanted to pass up the peaks while fun. Until a thick bolt of lightning struck down about 1 second’s thunderclap away. He said: “Did you feel a bit of a ‘zap’ in the water?” I said no, but was paddling for the beach and the energy I was putting out may have overridden any in the water. Then waited out one of the wildest 20-30 minute storms under the Surf Club. Good times.
is this a good reason to encourage stand up paddle boarding, or Kaj lenny’s carrot sail or any other potential lightning rod substitute?
Bloody Sharks!
I find the prospect of getting hit by a lightning a lot scarier than getting hit by a shark, could be totally irrational though. Could be an opportunity for a solid Beachgrit expose running the odds of sharks vs lightning vs needlefish in the neck etc.
me..
I surf through our very frequent lightning storms often and have never heard of someone getting hit in the water. The ocean is a very conducive ground so if you are in the ocean you are grounded. If a lightning strike hits the ocean you are not a part of the ground path. It would literally need to land on your head to be a problem.
A couple of years ago in Bali a local surf instructor and a a pupil got hit while in the water.
One of them died instantly and the other was quite frazzled…
Is this anything to do with Michael Jackson’s skin-lightening regimen?
In dark colored cuntries fake lightening flies off the shelf.
In light colored cuntries fake darkening flies off the shelf.
You with me?
The grass is always greener?
its the bleached anus/sunburnt perenium I find conflicting.
That is a conundrum!
And I don’t get this latest trend with young women sporting the punched in the mouth look.
Domestic violence chic?
I suppose we did have junkie chic for a while
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I remember Pierre Tostee was zapped sitting on the rocks at shark alley one year at Surfest. I googled to check the year and.. my god.. the luck on this poor Saff. I discovered that later on, novo royalty, Nicky Wood had some weed food which Tostee ate “by mistake”, promptly went into meltdown mode and couldn’t surf anymore! Clearly he should never have come to Newy/hung out with any of our fine residents. Bunch of absolute cunce we are.
What great title for a movie: “Once Cunce”.
Surf Lifesaving protocol is the 30-30 rule – if lightning is seen, and heard as thunder within 30 seconds, then they’ve gotta close the beach for 30 minutes. Beach stays closed until 30 minutes after the last lightning-within-30-seconds-of-thunder event. Salt water conducts electricity like a mofo with all its salt ions/fish piss/human piss.
But also clubbies are largely kooks and Australia is a bubble wrap kinda place so it’s hard to know how close you could actually cut it. Anyone ever heard of someone getting hit by lightning while in the water?
I’ve surfed through a few storms, shitting myself, and often wondered about this.
At least shit doesn’t conduct electricity, assuming you’re not a 7 on the Bristol Scale.
I can recommend a particular crossover short brand which may assist.
I heard at least one person getting struck and killed while surfing in Bali a couple of years ago
Imagine if you could harness the power to click your fingers and drop humans like flies with the subtle dash of one billion volts. Oh the fun I would have in Santa Monica, and Dee Why, the arsehole of Sydney’s Northern beaches.
It was..
Now it’s more like the upper thigh
Where in Sydney would you describe as the perineum?
So that’s somewhere between the asshole and the pussy..
Mmm
I’d say edgcliffe
Could be b’twixt a rusty sherrif’s badge and the ding-dong also, methinks.
Let’s not be sexist in these ENLIGHTENED times.
Taint
Newport
Is lightning the new sharks at BG?
Lightening might be.
Lightening, like you not wanting Sal on the WSL commentary team??
That’s me still out there.
Hard as fuk.
This was a few weeks ago scoop.
It’s spelled “lightning,” you colossal donut.
Not around here it ain’t.
lightening: a drop in the level of the uterus during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis.
Chas be doing some weird shit in the water these days.
I have a great story that involves an 8-bit chip tune version of Metallica’s ‘Ride teh litening’, as played by the Billabong x Metallica shorts which open automatically when you need a poo out in the line-up.
Would you like to hear it (read it ) (again) ?