My experience

There was this one time at the beach that I was with my mum and my brother Will. We were at our family place down at Batemans Bay over the holidays. It was a hot sunny day, and we all wanted to get into the water and have a swim. It was high tide, so we were closer to the shore than we usually were. At this each there are no lifeguards as it was at a caravan park called Barlings Beach. My brother and I were in the water playing around and swimming when all the sudden my brother stands awfully still and confused. I looked around and couldn't see anything, and because I didn’t have my hearing devices on in the water, I started panicking a little bit. My brother was signalling for me to stay calm and just follow mums directions. I looked over, and I couldn’t see my mum. By this point, my adrenaline started to kick i,n andI felty rather scared. I finally spotted my mum, and she was telling us to slowly walk or swim the other direction (left) and try not to make any sudden movements. I was really confused and was looking at my brother for some clarification on what was going on; he was also confused, which, by the way,y did not make me feel any better about what was going on. I kept signing to her, um, trying to ask what was going on, but she couldn't see because she was too focused on what she was trying to get us away from, whatever was in the water that was freaking her out. 

 

Eventually, she signed for my brother and me to come out of the water to “get something to eat”. My brother and I came to the area that we set up, and I put my ears on. We asked why she was telling us to move, and she said that she thought she saw a “rip”. We believed her and had a snack, 5 minutes later we were back in the water, and the next minute I looked over, and Mum was signalling that there was a shark in the water. I couldn't believe what she was saying and was frantically looking around to find the so-called shark. Then, I saw what she was talking about, but instead of seeing one, I saw about 4, that's when I realised they weren't sharks, they were dolphins, I only noticed because they were jumping up from out of the water. I signed to mum that it was a dolphin, not a shark, and she calmed right down. I was rather surprised, though, because they were quite close to the shore and in a caravan park beach.