"I think they were the 100 metres where I most put my heart and soul into swimming in my life."
Inspiration has been difficult to come by in these days of our Covid lives. Distanced from other people, forced behind masks, living in a pixilated Zoom world that once felt futuristic but now feels like a collaboration between Max Headroom and Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day.
Rough times.
Lines of poetry gone unfinished.
Potentially masterful works of art collecting dust on easels.
Well, we always have the animal kingdom when our humanity needs a spark and thus we travel to Spain where a brave teenaged paralympic swimmer was training off Costa Brava.
The Rough Coast.
Ariel Schrenck Martinez, who has one arm and one leg, and a member of Spain’s paralympic B-Swim Team was going through the paces, trying to find some incentive, with his mother on the beach filming.
Suddenly she saw not one but two shark fins, tracking her boy.
Like any good mother, she began screaming loudly.
Martinez told TV channel Antena 3 Deportes: “My mum started to shout like a crazy woman that there were sharks in the water.
“At that moment my body started panicking terribly and I started swimming like a madman.”
“I think I was 100 metres from the shore. I think they were the 100 metres where I most put my heart and soul into swimming in my life. I’m not in top shape and I almost died sprinting to the shore.”
Video footage that Martinez crushed the previous 100 meter paralympic record of 47.68 held by Ihar Boki of Belarus and there is little doubt that he will be bumped up to the A-Team in time for the 2021 Tokyo Games and surfing’s grand debut.
Now it is your turn. Take the wonderful story of Ariel Schrenck Martinez and use it to fuel the best Zoom call of your life today, in turn inspiring one of your colleagues to really smash it tomorrow.
Eventually all of humanity will be back to doing what we do best.
Doing Zoom calls in person.
Let’s give ‘er hell!
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Fake news
It’s taken me 18 yrs, but even I don’t call a car park a parking lot in Australia.
Only that you know. Your YouTube links breakl in Safari on both mac and phone. Most of the times you’d get
An error occurred. Please try again later. (Playback ID: ufjBcLcKTjrveaVk)
Learn More
tested on multiple computers and phones.
Like for this article ^
*in a shack and a small mind filled with sharks.
Tftfy – You’re welcome !
Maybe the sharks were there to give him a hand in case he got in trouble. Or perhaps a leg up on the competition.
how does he not swim in circles?
Like who’s circling who here?
*KVF sitting at his desk, getting ready tackle his workday, tells his co-worker via Zoom call*
KVF: Yo, bro, there was this dude with one leg who outswam a shark in Spain!
KVF: No way! Wait, Spain? Do they even have scary sharks in Spain?…
KVF: Bro, bro, I don’t know, but he had one leg!… and one arm!
KVF: OK.
KVF: Isn’t that inspiring?
KVF: I don’t know. I guess. Pretty cool that he is part of Spain Team B.
KVF: Are you trying to get started on working or something?
KVF: Nah, I’m putting it off. I think I’ll do it when somebody asks. I basically have my computer on to have that green circle next to my name so that people can see I’m “working”
KVF: Nice, well, you’re going to be able to crush it whenever you start…
KVF: Sure. Should I comment on the Beach Grit article about the Largo Juan Plata story?
KVF: If you want to! I think it could be good!
KVF: But I have nothing to say… a real conundrum.
KVF: How are you going to structure it?
KVF: I think I’m going to have it be a fake conversation with myself.
KVF: I don’t know…
KVF: Eh, I’m doing it. No matter how bad it sucks.
KVF: Are you going to add anything about surfing?
KVF: Nah, no one wants to hear about my crazy barrels over the weekend…
KVF: They were actually hunchback head dips…
KVF: Like Quasimodo! Nah, shhhhhhhh. I’m almost done. This is really shit. I should add “Kinky Tits” somewhere… there. Killed it.
KVF: Fin.
This is what I come here for.
Strange times indeed, when KVF is reduced to having Zoom meetings with himself. Still, an entertaining dialogue! Remember: you’re never alone with a schizophrenic.
say hi to KVF, KVF!