I feel sorry for injured surfer who become most hated man on internet
I actually feel sorry for the surfer who (apart from one Donald J Trump) was a candidate for the most decried, derided and despised man on the internet this week. Sam Brenchley is his name. And let’s just say that the last few days haven’t been his finest hours, due to a combination of bad luck swiftly followed by bad judgment. Sam’s run of misfortune began in the rolling surf off Fistral Beach in Newquay. He lost control of his board and a treacherous wave threw one end of it into his head – hard.
Sam was knocked unconscious and may very well have drowned if he hadn’t been spotted by an off-duty lifeguard and several other surfers. Between them they managed to drag him from the water to the shore where he was “brought back to life”. The story doesn’t end there. Sam was still in a very bad way and the Cornish Air Ambulance (spoiler alert, Richard and I are ambassadors for the charity) was scrambled. It made a dramatic landing on the beach while Sam was being attended to by a Newquay coastguard rescue team and a conventional ambulance crew. He was then airlifted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.
So far, so impressively efficient – a terrific example of ordinary people and rescue services working together to save a life. And considering that Cornwall Air Ambulance is a charity that doesn’t receive a penny in government funding, you’d think that when Sam had recovered sufficiently to launch a crowd-funding appeal on social media, it would be for the life-saving chopper service.
Er... No, not exactly. Sam, below, wrote the following.
“On Monday I got hit by a surfboard and suffered a blackout and had to get airlifted off the beach. Unfortunately, for safety precautions they cut my wetsuit off me. Could you please donate to help get me a new suit and get back into the water doing the thing I love.”
Ouch. Cue online outrage. One of Sam’s rescuers posted: “This is very disheartening... a donation to the air ambulance is more suitable than a new wetsuit.”
Trust me, that was one of the kinder comments. Zak de Ville said: “Is this some sort of delayed April fools? How about donating to the air ambulance? It cost them as a charity around £4,000 to airlift you to hospital!”
To his credit, a chastened Sam U-turned faster than a speeding surfer and announced his GoFundMe page would now donate every penny received to Cornwall Air Ambulance. So I think we should forgive him his misstep. Let’s put it down to a bang on the head, shall we?
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Economists and political soothsayers searching for some kind of hidden (EXTREMELY well-hidden) logic behind Donald Trump’s “beautiful” trade tariffs (why is everything this man does have to be “beautiful”?) may be frustrated. Far from detecting a cunning plan to explain the last extraordinary few days, might the answer lie purely in Trump’s weird personality? A narcissist (no one will argue with that assessment, surely?) addicted to drama, just as long as it revolves exclusively around him? I can’t think of a more fitting explanation, can you?
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So, The White Lotus reached its bloody conclusion this week to erm, a mixed response from its devoted audience, including us. I thought it was a terrific finale to the cult eight-part TV series: Richard was less impressed (probably because his pet theories about whodunnit, though ingenious, were plumb wrong). But the real winner to emerge from the show? The brilliant British actress Aimee Lou Wood (pictured), gloriously prominent teeth and all. A truly breakout role for toothsome talented Aimee. Expect to see a lot more of her, and soon.
express.co.uk
