Living a life for others
#16: Water guardians, shipwreck sleuths, Antarctic medicine, foam caps, and the art of living dangerously...
Tales from the fringes of sport and society…
Passing through Frankfurt airport the other day, I did two things that made me look every bit the giddy tourist that I was.
I ordered a jaw-clogging Frankfurter, lashing it in mustard, ketchup and sauerkraut. There is no dignified way to eat these things. But dignity was a lost concept by then anyway. That’s because the other thing I did was take a selfie with Albert Einstein. Or rather, his sculpture, which sits on a bench opposite the duty free shop.
Doing my best to repress my first thought (“that tache must have made eating bratwursts a nightmare”), I spent my lunch digging out the German’s many thought-provoking quotes. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile” was one that landed a punch.
Easy to say for a guy who revolutionised humanity’s understanding of space and time. For those of us who aren’t theoretical physicists or Nobel laureates, it’s a little trickier to be quite so altruistic.
There are bills to be paid, packed lunches to be made, lawns to be mowed, Netflix documentaries to be watched. Where does Albert expect us to find the time? Not all of us have a willing Angela Rippon on hand to muck in.
And yet, the latest figures suggest that more than half of the UK population get involved in some form of volunteering. Like organising a weekly scouts group, shopping for the elderly, manning a food bank, or working the till at a charity shop.
Grassroots sport would crumble overnight without the thousands who offer their service gratis. From event marshalls and coaches to referees, organisers, and medics. That magic sponge only works with a benevolent hand attached to it.
And so, to keep Albert happy, this month's Off-Field newsletter is dedicated to the good Samaritans of this world. The lifesavers, entertainers, campaigners, and investigators who devote their time and expertise to help others, often for little reward. Quite why they do it is anyone's guess. But we should all be bloody thankful that they do.
Onto this month’s picks…
In deep: A day in the life of a volunteer lifeguard
Over four million people participated in some form of swimming in the UK last year. Despite the pandemic prompting a flurry of pool closures that continue today, over half a million have defied this worrying trend by heading outdoors, diving into lakes, rivers, and seas. Yet, in a twisted irony, Covid-19 also triggered a shortage of qualified lifeguards to keep us safe.
And so, in this new episode of Unsung - our first-ever outside broadcast - we meet some of the country’s best lifeguards at the Great North Swim in Windermere. We discover why they do what they do, and to see if we can’t persuade a few more to follow their lead…
“I'm a sort of serial volunteer, so I just keep saying yes to stuff. It's great. And it does bring a huge amount of experience of things that you never even think about. For me, my personal drive is that I want to help people love what I love.”
The Antarctic doctor
From 2019 until 2021, Dr James Bowyer provided medical cover for the British Antarctic Survey. He was based at the Rothera Research Station, a centre for biological research and a hub for supporting deep-field and air operations. Remarkably, his remote location made him one of the last doctors on the planet to encounter Covid. This story, for a commercial project I edited a few years back, reveals the pressures he felt as the only medic in an area the size of Europe...
“Life on an Antarctic research station is unique. Classified as an isolated, confined environment (isolated from the outside world, confined in that we can’t leave), it is no wonder that psychologists have studied research stations as proxies for long-term space travel. Despite our comfortable living conditions, we are heavily dependent on our life support systems. If the generators or water production plant breaks, we could suddenly be left in a tenuous situation, exposed to the harsh realities of our location.”
The shipwreck detective
A Sam Knight feature in The New Yorker is always one to save for half an hour with a piping hot coffee. Here he profiles the tweed-wearing, Cambridge-based shipwreck expert who locates sunken treasure without ever leaving dry land.
“There is something almost dangerously tantalizing about an undiscovered shipwreck. It exists on the edge of the real, containing death and desire. Lost ships are lost knowledge, waiting to be regained. ‘It’s like popping the locks on an old suitcase and you lift the lid,’ Bound told me.”
How a 12-ounce layer of foam changed the NFL
Could a 12-ounce, foam-padded, protective helmet covering called a Guardian Cap be the solution to American Football's troubling link with brain disorders? A near 50% drop in training camp concussions since their 2022 debut suggests it might. Wired's Alex Prewitt finds out more.
“There is no ignoring the goofy aesthetics of the puffy, blobby Guardian Caps. The product’s parent company, Guardian Sports, even has staff T-shirts that declare, LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, PLAY GOOD—with LOOK GOOD crossed out. ‘Condom caps, mushroom heads—we’ve heard them all,’ says Erin Hanson, cofounder of Guardian Sports alongside her husband, Lee Hanson. ‘We just laugh, because we agree.’”
The art of living dangerously
In 2011, still young and more than a little dumb, I did the Nevis Bungee in Queenstown, New Zealand. As I plummeted 150 metres head-first down a valley, a noise emanated from deep within me. One I’d never heard before. And one I never want to hear again. That bungee jumping remains a preposterously popular activity owes much to the barmy hijinks of the late David Kirke, who is remembered in this jaunty piece by Duncan Craig for Delayed Gratification.
“It was dawn on April Fool’s Day 1979 when Kirke and three fellow members of the club hurled themselves off the 245ft-high Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Inspired by the little-known Pacific Islands ritual of ‘land diving’ using vines attached to bamboo towers, the quartet – running on the fumes of an all-night party – had elasticated cords tied to their midriffs. Kirke, the first to leap, was dressed in top hat and tails.”
‘We all can do it,’ says 88-year-old runner after completing 12th Athens Marathon
Not only has a man more than double my age just completed his 12th marathon. But Ploutarchos Pourliakas, at 88 years old, even dared to beat his time from the year before. And, as we discover in this short piece on The Guardian, his lifestyle is quite the contrast to David Kirke's. I need to find some of that tsipourou...
“In his training routine, the 88-year-old runs from four to five kilometres daily and up to 20km on weekends. ‘I’ve never smoked. I don’t indulge in excesses, I don’t drink, I don’t stay up late,’ he added. ‘I eat in a balanced way, everything but in moderation. However, I do have a little ‘tsipouro’ (a local drink) every day not as a drink, but as a medicine.’”
In conversation with NPLH
If you’ll forgive the self-indulgence, yours truly was interviewed recently on the NPLH podcast. Joseph Fordham was the affable host, keen to learn about my unconventional journey through journalism. Instead, I waffled on about sharing a bed with Danny Dyer, playing Supermarket Sweep in Hamleys, and irritating my wife during Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild. Turns out there’s a good reason why I’m usually the one asking the questions…
Say nothing, Patrick Radden Keefe
“The bomb exploded, killing five people, but not Thatcher. The IRA issued a statement, eloquently capturing the strategic advantage of terrorism: ‘Today we were unlucky, but remember, we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always.’”
The Troubles in Northern Ireland is a period that can seem simultaneously from a distant past but also disturbingly contemporary. So it takes a brave journalist to dredge through the archives to tell the untold stories of the dead and disappeared without reigniting flames that once threatened to burn communities to the ground. In the painstakingly-researched and delicately-written Say Nothing - recently adapted for TV and streaming on Disney - Patrick Radden Keefe proves that he's a generational gift capable of doing just that.
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“The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive” - Albert Einstein