You L'il Ripper!

• Isabelle Lever, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2009

I saw a blue-green wall so I began to paddle like a crazy man. My arms were burning until that last strong stroke launched me onto the wave. Woah! I thought. This was the knarliest wave of the century! I shot down the face at incredible speed. The wave would have been at least 15 metres high as I entered the tube. “I’m gonna make it, I’m gonna make it!” I screamed.
Bang! I felt the pounding on my head then my body felt like a building had fallen on top of me. I collapsed into a world of swirling water as the wave tried to rip my limbs from my body. I opened my eyes only to see a blur of wash and sand. Survival kicked in as I tried to pull myself to the surface, it was like pulling on a truck every time I tried to swim up. I could feel my lungs desperate for air, my cheeks puffed up like a balloon, holding on to the last oxygen I had. Exhausted, I exhaled. Surrounded by tiny fizzy bubbles, slowly I started to sink. As the dizziness came over me, I made no more attempts to reach the surface. My imagination wandered as my consciousness began to slip away. Maybe in the after-life I would come back as a fish and spend all my time in the deep blue. Maybe, I thought, as I dazed into the world of unconsciousness.
Back on the beach people stood silently waiting for a miracle, to see me come to the surface. They stood staring, breathless, no one speaking. A loud bark came from behind them. There was Ripper. My dog sprinted down the beach and sprang through the break and into the water. Ripper had startled the crowd into action, my mates chased after him. Ripper kept swimming out, diving under waves and paddling as fast as he could.
Rrr..iiii..pppp! Someone was tugging at my rashie. I wasn’t going to become a fish! At least not yet! When I reached the surface, my lungs gasped for breath. Still semi-conscious, I thought I was imagining things as I looked through my water logged eyes at my Old English Sheep Dog, Ripper! I had no strength to swim and could do little but keep my head above water as I held tight to Ripper’s coat as he swam into shore. When we got to the beach, I rolled onto the sand, thankful to feel the warm grains coating my body!
Ripper had always watched me surf but he had never been big on the water. My mates had joked that he wouldn’t swim and that his big coat would drag him down! Ripper proved them wrong. What a good boy! As for me, I got back in the water that day and kept surfing to win the competition! As I received my trophy and prize money I knew I owed it all to Ripper.