Chinese Version06-20-2024, Thursday, Sunny

Today, my grandchildren are in daycare, and Alex is on vacation at home as his company gives employees three days off for Juneteenth. I decided to go out, so I quickly prepared a simple lunch, then drove to the closest beach (Santa Cruz State Beache) along the W Cliff Dr. It is one of my favorite beaches.

It was already noon when I arrived at Lighthouse Field State Beach, and there were still many empty parking spaces near the lighthouse. After parking my car there, I brought my lunch with me and walked along the sidewalk of W Cliff Drive towards the Beach Boardwalk. This is a busy sidewalk with joggers, walkers by themself or with dogs or with baby strollers, bike riders, and more. While walking among them, I enjoyed the white clouds floating in the blue sky, breathed the salty air unique to the seaside, and felt refreshed. On the right side of the sidewalk under the shade people were sitting on the reefs relaxing and eating. As I happened to pass the concrete steps leading to that area, so I changed my mind and walked down the steps to the seaside where huge reefs were randomly piled up. There were big gaps between the reefs. Afraid of slipping, I used my hands and feet to walk and crawl, passing a few people who were sitting on the reefs earlier than I, and came to sit on a flat reef about ten meters away from the steps.

After sitting down, I looked around. A big reef in the water was right in front of me, steep cliffs were on my right and behind me, and the reef seaside and the concrete steps were on my left. While sitting in this noisy and beautiful, secluded and shady place, I watched the vast curved connecting line between the blue ocean and the blue sky in front of me, saw the white splashes flying high when the ocean waves hit the reefs under my feet, listened to the echoing of the loud sound of the waves crashing against the reefs, I felt relaxed and casually placed my lunch box on the reef to take photos of my lunch and the beautiful landscape behind it.

Today’s lunch is almonds, raisins, celery slices, and purple plum slices. While sitting on the flat reef enjoying the surroundings, I slowly ate my lunch. Chewing almonds along with raisins, I tasted sugar and oil and felt the mix of a crunchy and soft texture, a new way of eating I recently discovered while feeding my grandson Ben healthy snacks. Raw celery slices are juicy, tender, with a strong flavor, I often brought them with me as a snack while going out, as celery is rich in fiber. Purple plum is seasonal, very juicy and sweet. After finishing my health and light lunch, I felt that adding one or two boiled eggs will be even better and I will remember to bring eggs next time.

I was looking at the sea and the memory of the 2022 Chinese Zhongyuan Day at the seaside of Acadia National Park was quietly floating in my mind. I felt that the rocks in the distant East Coast are neater, and the waves here on the West Coast are louder. I took out my phone to find that I was facing Due East, where my late parents are in my thoughts, so I talked with them: “Have you heard the loud sound of the waves at the seaside? I felt it was the happy note of earth, containing the vitality of your grandchildren. There are only two people surfing here today. Oh, a surfer is swimming towards the shore now.”

I started to pay attention to the surfer who was swimming towards the seaside where I was sitting. He stopped by the big reef, unzipped the back of his full-body wetsuit, then continued to swim towards me. I saw that he seemed unable to climb onto the shore, because the reef on the shore where he was leaning against was covered with sharp edge mussels which made climbing them with bare hands painful. He tried to take off his full-body wetsuit in the water, but the waving water made him taking a long time to just get his arms out of his wetsuit. I suddenly heard someone next to me shouting, “Don’t move, I’ll help you!” I looked up and saw an African-American man with finger-thick curly hair was standing near me, then I watched him jumping nimbly over the big gaps between the random big reefs and running to the edge of the shore to the person trapped in the water. I thought this guy must be an athlete!

I watched him bend down to take the surfboard out of the water, then quickly pull the surfer out of the water as well. The surfer sat tiredly on the reef a few steps below me. When the young man carrying the surfboard walked past me toward the cliffs, I looked up and asked, “Are you his coach?” He said, “No, my friends and I were watching him up there.” I said, “Wow, you’re a Good Samaritan!”

The guy put the surfboard against the cliffs behind me, turned around and quickly jumped over the big reef to help the surfer take off his full-body wetsuit. After the surfer took off his wetsuit, the guy carefully choose the foothold, one reef after another, to guide the tired surfer, who was using his hands and feet to climb up slowly, to reach the cliffs. When the guy and the surfer passed by me, I saw the surfer like a child and couldn’t help but ask: “Boy, how old are you?” “Thirteen.” the boy replied. Seeing the scratches and bleeding marks on the back of his thigh, I told the guy, “Look, he is bleeding, is it serious?” The guy lowered his head and looked at the boy’s legs and said, “No problem.”

I heard applause from above the cliff behind me. I guess it was the cheering for this 2-minute reality show of the Good Samaritan, from the leisurely people who were watching the scenery on the sidewalk. It took less than three minutes for the Good Samaritan to go from standing next to me to helping the surfer up the concrete steps.

I guess the boy lives nearby so he came here to surf alone. Thanks to the Good Samaritans in the world, he is safe. Here are nine-square photos of the Good Samaritan helping the 13-year-old surfer today:

After sitting in this noisy and beautiful, secluded and cool place for more than an hour and after watching the last surfer steadily coming ashore, I left the reef under the shade and climbed up the concrete steps. Today, I was very touched to witness human kindness in action at my favorite beach.

After going back home, I self-evaluated a bit. I was only about five meters away from the surfer who was trapped in the water. I saw him trying to take off his full-body wetsuit and climb ashore, but he failed because of the big waves, the floating surfboard, and the mussels covered reefs. Lacking physical strength and mobility made me not think of helping him. It seems that incompetence will kill impulse and thinking power, sadly.

Little Episodes

Bumping into a Good Samaritan by the sea:

While watching the last surfer steadily climbing up the shore, I also saw sweet scenes of a family of two (the mother in black clothes and red jeans and the daughter in a light blue dress) and a family of four (parents and two daughters) playing nearby on the reefs, which was very soothing.

In the afternoon, I jogged along the seaside sidewalk towards the Natural Bridge Beach. The road that had been closed for cars for nearly a year, was now also closed for walkers, so I turned back and stayed on the dog leash free beach near Lighthouse Beach until 7 o’clock. The scenery on the dog leash free beach was charming: by my resting area, people were relaxing on the beach, dogs were at ease, and a family of five were walking their black dog.

In April 2024, my son, daughter-in-law and I had a day trip. We visited Santa Cruz Beach too.