Waves | 𝑶.𝑷.

Part 17

TW: Mentions of suicide and suicidal thoughts

𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡, 𝐒𝐲𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐲, 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚
𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑:

Heidi Scott sat on one side of the sofa in the debrief room.

Hoppo, Jake, Harries and Harrison were also present, looking a bit glum and tired.

All of them had struggled with sleeping last night, the image of the man's frozen face from the day before and the conditions they'd retrieved him in playing harshly on their minds.

More had come out from the whole situation the day before, key details in what had happened to him had changed drastically and when Heidi had been told, she felt sick to her stomach.

The man's name had been Jason Redwood, he was twenty-nine years old and a local from Bondi. A well-known surfer throughout the community who always came to the beach to surf with a bright smile and always available to converse with the lifeguards on duty. His father owned a very successful restaurant that he was planning to take over once his father retired and he had a wife, two beautiful daughters aged seven and four and a baby on the way. He had helped countless times with rescues in the water and was a volunteer lifesaver on the weekends and during public holidays.

No one had recognised him when they were out there bringing his body back in, but now they knew his name, his face sat at the forefront of their minds.

He had in fact, not gone for a midnight swim in the treacherous conditions at Tamarama.

From what police had gathered, Jason had been suffering from intense amounts of stress due to his father planning to retire. His two brothers had informed police that Jason had stated multiple times about ending his life because he couldn't handle the stress of everything on his shoulders. He had been in therapy for three months.

The police had ruled his death a suicide.

"So it was suicide?"

Heidi was the first to speak, finally looking up from where she was twiddling her thumbs.

"According to police." Hoppo replies. "How are you all?"

"Tired." Harrison mutters. "It was a hard one."

"Yeah, I didn't sleep much last night." Harries adds.

"Scotty did the brunt of it." Jake turns to face the girl. "You sat with him the entire time."

"It was the right thing to do." Heidi replies. "I know we have to do it with everyone we go and get from the water, but conditions were horrible and we could barely keep him on the mat."

Hoppo nods his head. He didn't know the full story as to two bad conditions were out the back of Tamarama, but Tamarama beach was considered one of the most dangerous beaches in the whole of Australia because of the cliff faces and rocks surrounding it.

"I'm so tired." Heidi mutters, rubbing her eyes.

Jake places a comforting hand on her shoulder, she looked up at him with teary eyes before composing herself and looking away briefly.

"Well, the good thing is that he's back with his family now." Harrison sighs.

Everyone nodded their heads, Heidi still felt sick to her stomach at all of the information Hoppo had told them and after chatting through everything for a little bit longer. The group - who were all off-duty for the day - moved out of the room.

Heidi grabbed her surfboard from where she'd left it in the tunnel of the lifeguard tower, pulling her wetsuit on - a shorty with long sleeves - and hooking her board underneath her arm. She jogged down the beach towards the waters edge. Another storm had formed during the night so once again, the swell in the surf was up and the second she hit the water, all the thoughts of the day before emptied from her mind.