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- [00:01]
Advertiser/Host
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- [00:37]
Narrator
It's a hot Summer's Day in July 1967 on Spain's southern coast. Today, the Costa del Sol is living up to its name. The shoreline is steeped in sunshine, brilliant rays glinting off the soft golden sand and azure waters of the Mediterranean. Brightly colored fishing boats bob gently on the rolling waves, followed by flocks of gulls arcing and wheeling through the blue sky as they search for food. Along the miles of pristine beaches that make up this coastline, people relax on loungers or towels, basking in the beauty of their surroundings. But in the small port town of Fuengirola, the usually serene atmosphere is suddenly broken by urgent shouts on the beach. A small crowd has gathered facing out towards the ocean. They squint against the sun and point in horror at two figures locked together in the water. From a distance, they could almost be embracing out in the waves, thrashing against the pull of the undertow. 28 year old guy Taplin tightens his grip on the woman he's trying to save, desperately attempting to keep them both above the surface of the water.
- [01:58]
Guy Taplin
You're in a very tumultuous situation in the sea. You're in a grip of like an animal, it feels like, you know, and you realize that you're not in control. That's the other thing as well. You've lost control of the situation.
- [02:11]
Narrator
Guy focuses all his energy on kicking his legs and keeping his chin above the surface, but he's fighting a losing battle. A wave rears up and crashes over his head, the briny water stinging his eyes and running down his throat. Despite his best efforts, they're being pulled further out to sea, the figures on the sand growing smaller with alarming speed. His strength is fading fast and his hold on the woman starts to wane. He scans the empty stretch of water around them. There is nobody to offer help. Their only chance of survival is to make it back to the shore, and that possibility is rapidly vanishing.
- [02:55]
Guy Taplin
I remember sinking back down in the swell and I couldn't move at all. My arms and legs. I just had no body strength. You know, you haven't got long drowning. You've only got to take a few mouthfuls of water and you've had it, really.
- [03:14]
Narrator
Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet Guy Taplin in 1967. Directionless and in search of adventure, the young man travels with his girlfriend to the south of Spain, a country going through a strange and turbulent time. Still under the dictatorship of General Franco, but also enjoying a massive tourism boom. And it's in this unique setting that Englishman Guy faces a dark and dangerous episode, settling into life on the coast. At first, the days slip by in a happy haze. When a fellow beachgoer gets caught in the pull of a sudden and powerful riptide, Guy jumps in to help. Battling against the choppy waves and strong current, he quickly finds himself plunged into a desperate fight for his own life as well.
- [04:24]
Guy Taplin
We went straight out on his rip. The undertow had us.
- [04:28]
Narrator
Guy and the woman will be swept far out to sea, beyond the reach of any help, barely able to keep their heads above water. Their strength is running out in that
- [04:38]
Guy Taplin
sea and you're in the grip of something and you read about it and see it on the telly, and then it's happening to you. You're caught in this current. Everything's incredibly intense. Whatever's happening beyond the conscious mind is going into full action of survival.
- [04:55]
Narrator
I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is real survival Stor. It's July 1967, a beautiful summer's day in the south of Spain. The air is hot and dry, the dusty landscape parched by the sweltering heat that is so characteristic of the area at this time of year. In the brilliant blue skies above huenirola, situated some 20 miles down the coast from Malaga, the sun burns fiercely, its rays bouncing of the pretty whitewashed buildings that make up this small Andalusian port town. On a brush covered hill above the settlement, the remains of a 10th century Moorish castle overlooked the rich blue waters of the Mediterranean where the white capped waves roll gently onto the miles of sandy beach that border the town. But among the more traditional buildings, new structures are also starting to spring up. Apartment blocks, hotels and restaurants for a growing tourist trade which has begun to blossom along this picturesque coastline in the past decade or so. Increasing numbers of international holidaymakers have begun to visit the aptly named Costa del Sol, drawn to the warm climate and beautiful shores. The resulting economic boom is being felt across the country, which still under Franco's military dictatorship, is developing with astounding speed. Most tourists come to the area for just a week or two of relaxation. But there are others, such as 28 year old guy Taplin, who have traveled here with a less firm plan in mind.
- [06:59]
Guy Taplin
When you got down there, you didn't talk about what you did, you just entered the life. It wasn't a leap for me. It was just a very natural thing to do. I mean, I was free, free to do whatever I wanted.
- [07:11]
Narrator
Only a few days ago, Guy was in the UK working as a lifeguard at a pool in London, when he saw some of his contemporaries drop everything and head out into the big wide world. He was inspired. Soon, Guy and his art student girlfriend Lou decide to take the plunge by quitting their lives in England and driving to Spain.
- [07:33]
Guy Taplin
The other lifeguards I was working with, what they used to do was to get a car on hp, usually an American car, you know, big un, and then just clear off, not pay the things or anything, just clear off. They went down to Spain, so we thought, we'll join them down there.
- [07:49]
Narrator
Since arriving in Fola, Guy and Lou have made the most of their new surroundings, getting to know both the locals and other tourists and finding casual work to keep some money rolling in.
- [08:02]
Guy Taplin
Lou got a job in an Indian restaurant. It was very unusual in Spain in that period and I got a job as a chef, but the chef involved them cooking the food somewhere or other and freezing it. So all I had to do was when they got the order, you take out the freezer, eat it up and serve it, you know, it was pretty basic, but I usually got drunk, unfortunately, very. And I got the sack out of that, so I was floating around on the beach.
- [08:30]
Narrator
With plenty of free time on their hands, Guy and Lou enjoy many restful days of sand and sun. Today is especially hot. The coastline looks particularly dazzling. Lou rolls over on the sand, exposing her tanned back to the warming rays. Beside her, Guy shields his eyes and glances out at the expanse of foam crested waves where people paddle lazily in the surf or swim slowly out into deeper waters. It's a tranquil scene and his previous life seems worlds away.
- [09:06]
Guy Taplin
I was born in 1939 in London. My dad worked at Woolwich Arsenal and it got bombed out because they come up the Thames and he had to move and he got posted to Hereford and me and my mum went there and I went to school there and I suppose really they probably weren't very fond of people from London. They thought we were all a bit cocky and I didn't really make any friends. But even there we experienced the war.
- [09:35]
Narrator
Despite moving out of the capital for a time, and despite his father being unable to serve due to health reasons, the Second World War still deeply affected Guy and his family. His childhood was marred by the Blitz and memories of it have remained with him over the decades. One particular incident still haunts him in London.
- [09:55]
Guy Taplin
I went back and stayed with my aunt and they had an Anderson shelter, which is a sort of metal thing screwed to the floor. I must have been probably towards the end of the war when they started to use flying bombs and we got under the table, mom, me and my aunt, and I was absolutely terrified. It's the first time as a child I'd had this choir, but not that sort of terrifying fear. And it came down to the next street. We went out the next day and the house had just disappeared, you know.
- [10:28]
Narrator
After the war ended, Guy became interested in the natural world around him, making frequent trips alone to immerse himself in the beauty and wildness of the countryside. These trips helped to shape his character, fostering his sense of independence and self sufficiency.
- [10:46]
Guy Taplin
Through a lot of my life I'd been detached from those around me and really not able to adapt. But in a way I did unconsciously because I responded very much to nature. I used to go fishing, butterfly collecting, egg collecting. I was always out on my own as well. It was difficult to get other chaps to go out with you, so I suppose I'd either partly be conditioned to be on my own a lot or I was that way inclined, which I tend to think. And it's a good thing and a bad thing, you know, it's always a double edged sword, that sort of thing.
- [11:20]
Narrator
After leaving school at 15, Guy worked for a while in the post office before doing two years of national service, one of them in Cyprus. Upon being discharged in 1960, he began looking for work.
- [11:33]
Guy Taplin
Jobs were pretty awful and I did a sort of series of jobs. I ended up doing a ladies hairdressing course, came out of that, then went got a lifeguard's job in 1962, went through a series of lidos and wind cleaning and shining off the doll.
- [11:56]
Narrator
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- [12:56]
Advertiser
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- [12:58]
Guy Taplin
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- [13:00]
Advertiser
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- [13:27]
Narrator
as work didn't always grab Guy's interest, he found stimulation elsewhere, particularly at the public library.
- [13:37]
Guy Taplin
It was a very interesting period because people like Kerouac, Dylan Thomas with Under Milk, Wood, Salinger, Kafka. I was reading all those in the library in the wintertime. I used to go up there and just pull them off the shelf. You know, Hemingway, Jack London, all those sort of stories, probably more read now by certain people, but they weren't then amongst the working classes.
- [13:59]
Narrator
It wasn't long before you discovered a trove of new art and literature. It began firing his imagination and his desire to find out more.
- [14:10]
Guy Taplin
I sensed it was another world. I remember going into the reading room in Lakestone Library and they had Studio magazine and they had pictures of Hockney. This must have been in 1960 when he did those San Francisco pictures of the swimming pool and I thought, wow, they're really good, you know, and there was a lot of energy about them.
- [14:27]
Narrator
With the advent of the counterculture, Guy soon found himself immersed in the excitement and hedonism of swinging sixties London, a revolutionary melting pot of clubs, drugs, music, art and fashion.
- [14:41]
Guy Taplin
It was amazing and so I entered that world and then I met this girlfriend at Hornsey, Lido, where I was working as a lifeguard and she was in the art world. She was an art student at Hornsey. Up to then I'd been basically a working class boy. In those days there was no crossover,
- [14:59]
Narrator
but his social circle quickly widened. Working at the swimming pool or Lido gave Guy the opportunity to meet all sorts of strange and interesting people he may never have encountered otherwise.
- [15:11]
Guy Taplin
Swimming pools are funny places, you know, they attract odd people. It was that sort of weird environment, you know, and I'd worked at a lot of pools and there was a lot of weird things going on, some quite extreme things, people dying and all sorts of things, you know, we're looking back on. Attracted people that were always on the move.
- [15:34]
Narrator
By the time he was in his late 20s, Guy found himself adrift and purposeless, unsure of how he wanted to live the rest of his life or what he wanted to do.
- [15:45]
Guy Taplin
Most people I grew up with at that period got a job or a trade was the thing you got because it was secure, you're guaranteed a wage. The things to get was Fleet street on the press, meet Porter, another one, lighterman on the Thames, which I nearly got, but it was too fast for me to travel. Docs was another one, another good job. But I just floated from one thing to another. I had no sense of direction. There was nothing in the working classrooms. The only way you could get out of it was to be a footballer or a boxer.
- [16:15]
Narrator
Guy's lack of direction may come with problems. It also means he has fewer commitments and more freedom than many to reinvent himself, try something new. So when some of his fellow lifeguards decide to travel down to Spain, there is little holding him back from joining them. Reclining on the beach in the Costa del Sol, Guy and Lou strike, stretch out on their towels, their bodies cushioned by the soft sand as the chatter of locals and the crash of the waves echo around the sun kissed shoreline. He sighs, enjoying the warmth on his face and the cloudless blue sky above him. This is the life. But suddenly the calm is interrupted. Seemingly out of nowhere, the usually serene sea changes, the waves growing large and wild as they thunder onto the sand. And then somebody calls Guy's name.
- [17:22]
Guy Taplin
I'm on the beach in Fingoroda. There's a bar next to us where we used to sit around. And it's a big surf, very big surf running. There was no one on it. And I'm sitting there and it's hot. I'm sitting there with Lou. And this guy comes flying down the beach and says, there's somebody drowning further down. But he must have known that I was a lifeguard.
- [17:47]
Narrator
Guy leaps to his feet and follows the man back up the beach, the warm sand sticking to his toes as they run. It's hard going in the heat, and by the time they reach a small crowd gathering on the shore, they're panting. The air fills with confused shouts, Spanish and English mingling, as the onlookers point in mounting concern to a small, lone figure struggling in the water. Some way out. She's moving quickly away from the land, dragged out into the sea by some powerful, unseen force. In the chaos, someone fetches a rope and harness kept in a local bar for emergencies. They shove it towards Guy, then gesture urgently towards the woman in the water. As the only trained lifeguard on hand, it seems the task of rescuing her has fallen to him.
- [18:37]
Guy Taplin
And I thought, what? Why am I getting it? You know, I'm an iron, I'm a lifeguard. But I mean, I obviously thought I was going to do it, and I did, and I put it on, and I knew nothing about diving under the waves.
- [18:51]
Narrator
Guy wraps the harness around his chest. He can do little else out in the sea. The woman's head keeps sinking under the surf, and without help, she will likely drown. Besides, everyone's expectations are on him.
- [19:06]
Guy Taplin
I thought, oh, my God, you know, I've got to do this, you know, and I really didn't want to, but I did.
- [19:12]
Narrator
Suppressing his nerves, Guy secures the harness. Several people in the crowd grasp hold of the rope, readying themselves to pull him back in once he reaches the struggling woman. Then he heads for the water.
- [19:30]
Guy Taplin
I could see this woman. She was right out beyond the surf. What happened was I went out in this big, big, big waves, and you fault you ain't got bashed back, but the undertow carried you out.
- [19:43]
Narrator
As soon as he plunges into the sea, Guy is caught in the grip of a surprisingly ferocious current. Within seconds, he's carried away in the swell, tossed around as if he were nothing more than a cork in the ocean. This rescue mission is going to be even harder than he thought.
- [20:01]
Guy Taplin
You're in a very tumultuous situation in the sea. You know, the current's got you. You're in a grip of like an animal. It feels like you realize that you're not in control. You've lost control of the situation.
- [20:21]
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- [20:42]
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- [21:15]
Narrator
It's July 1967 on Spain's Costa del Sol. For the most part, the waters of the Mediterranean are relatively warm and calm at this time of year. But today, large waves are breaking up on the shore and a strong swell is churning the usually placid sea. And in the turbulent sea off the coast of Fuengirola, two figures are being carried away from land with horrifying speed. Caught in the pull of a fast and powerful current, Guy Taplin battles his way through the waves trying to reach the woman he entered the water to save. Although he's worked as a lifeguard at Lidos and pools back in the uk, he's unprepared for the unpredictable might of the sea.
- [22:01]
Guy Taplin
I didn't know anything about under toes and rips. I'd worked in a lio and if you can swim, you could save somebody. It's, it's in a lio, it's a piece of cake. You know, usually it's a kid. Usually they're in three or four foot of water, so you can stand up and you just pull them out. The sea is another thing, Al. Together,
- [22:24]
Narrator
Guy and the woman he's trying to help are caught in a riptide, a fast, dangerous current caused by tidal movements. It flows away from the land and pulls everything in its path out to sea. They can extend for hundreds, sometimes thousands of feet, with potentially deadly consequences to unsuspecting swimmers. Guy fights his way towards the struggling woman as the waves rear up and and crash down on top of him. The rope attached to his harness stretches out behind him, his one flimsy lifeline to the small crowd of onlookers back on land. Eventually, he is close enough to get hold of the woman.
- [23:06]
Guy Taplin
I mean, you're just in a very big swell. You're going up and down. You know, I grabbed hold of her, she must have weighed about 14 stone, early 50s, and she was Spanish. She didn't say anything to me, and I don't remember saying anything to her. I just grabbed hold of her.
- [23:21]
Narrator
Wordlessly, the Spanish woman clings to Guy, her fingernails digging into his arm. He wraps the harness around her to bind them together, then turns towards the shore and signals to be hauled in. The crowd on the beach heaves on the rope, dragging the combined weight of two people against the pull of the riptide. A human chain begins to form on the sand, snaking out into the surf to try to grab Guy and the woman as soon as they are brought into shallow water. The harness cuts deep into his chest as the rope strains taut, making it hard for him to breathe. Slowly, the two of them are hauled closer to the land and to safety.
- [24:05]
Guy Taplin
They formed a human chain into the wall, and we got really close, probably four or five foot away. She was virtually on the beach, and they grabbed hold of her. And then I was pulled out. The rope broke.
- [24:21]
Narrator
It happens in a heartbeat. The seemingly solid line is suddenly severed, the frayed ends left flapping uselessly in the waves. Having been stored in a beachside bar for years, unneeded and unused, the rope has gone rotten and snapped hands reach towards Guy and the woman, trying to pull them from the grasp of the current, but it's too late. Instantly, the power of the riptide is upon them. Once again, the woman is dragged from the hands of her rescuers, and the pair of them are swept back out to sea, their chance of rescue cruelly snatched away.
- [25:00]
Guy Taplin
We went straight out again on this rip. The undertow had us. I was carried out with her through the waves, up and down, and then we were back where we started in the big swirl.
- [25:15]
Narrator
In a single moment, the situation has changed drastically. Pulled back out into deep water by the riptide, and with nothing now tethering them to the shore, they are truly beyond the bounds of help. As they're dragged further away from land, the reality of what's just happened begins to sink in.
- [25:36]
Guy Taplin
Everything's very brilliant. I mean, strangely enough, incredibly alive. I mean, so it should be, really, because everything in you at that point is very rapidly trying to assimilate what's going on and is preparing you for trying to survive very quickly. Like seconds. I think, from the minute of being carried out, you're not in a conscious state, really, not in the normal way where you've got time for reflection or anything like that. Everything's incredibly intense. Whatever's happening beyond the conscious mind is going into full action, you know, survival.
- [26:11]
Narrator
But there is little he can do against the power of the sea. Still holding onto the Spanish woman, Guy kicks hard below the waterline, desperate to keep them both above the surface as waves crash over their heads. The effort is overwhelming.
- [26:29]
Guy Taplin
She's crashing over you and it's going up your mouth and in your mouth and all. Then you're holding on to her and you're in a terrible turmoil. Obviously, I was afraid when you get into those situations, everything's happening very quickly. That's what it feels like anyway. And your mental state has definitely changed. I mean, you're on the edge of panicking. And that's the second time in my life where I felt the same thing as being with my arm. Under this Anderson shelter in wood Green,
- [27:00]
Narrator
the same terror he felt as a child during the blitz grips him once again. Thrashing against the riptide, his strength is being sapped. Saltwater runs down his face, stinging his eyes and making his throat raw and red. As the seconds turn into minutes and they are pulled further and further from the shore, their chances of being rescued grow slimmer. Guy spits out a mouthful of briny water and looks back at the yellow stretch of the beach dotted with small figures. Many aren't even aware of the commotion and are happily getting on with their day. Relaxing on the beach, it's a disturbing juxtaposition.
- [27:49]
Guy Taplin
I saw people playing ball, you know, running about. Everything was normal. They just went on with their life on the beach. I remember sinking back down into the swell and I couldn't move at all. My arms and legs, I'd never been in that position. It's like when you're weight lifting, you, you might do 10 reps, then another 10. The last couple of reps, you can hardly move your arms. But it was that I just had no body strength. It was just like I was a torso with it on it.
- [28:21]
Narrator
Guy is entirely spent. He cannot go on like this.
- [28:26]
Guy Taplin
That's when I let her go. I didn't think about it, you know, it was an intuitive move. I just let her go.
- [28:35]
Narrator
Entirely depleted, he submits to the sea, letting the waves crash over him as the current drags him away from the woman. Neither of them has any strength left in their limbs. It seems all they can do now is wait for the inevitable end.
- [28:54]
Guy Taplin
You ain't got long drowning. You've only got to take a few mouthfuls of water and you. You've had it really. You know,
- [29:07]
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- [30:11]
Narrator
Amidst the turbulent waves, Guy drifts further away from the woman. The riptide is in total control of their limp bodies. The movement of their arms and legs become smaller and smaller, weaker and weaker. It's so tempting to stop fighting. Another torrent of salt water crashes over his head. For a few seconds his vision blurs and he squeezes his eyelids shut. He opens them again and blinks, scanning the water and taking in the debris caught in the pull of the riptide. And then he sees something floating straight towards him.
- [30:54]
Guy Taplin
So we're both bobbing about up there and I'm looking around in this swell and there's this sort of deck chairs, balls, plastic bits of paper floating about and loads of stuff, you know. And suddenly this lilo's come up in
- [31:10]
Narrator
a flash, a sliver of hope. The drag of the riptide has ensnared a long mattress like inflatable, designed for lounging on the water. Just seconds before, it looked like the current may kill them. Now it has sent them a potential salvation.
- [31:30]
Guy Taplin
For me, the thinking hang on a minute, this is not going very well. And letting her go, I would think probably 10, 20 seconds, you know, and then there's Lilo turning up. And you could look at it both ways that it was a Lilo floating out there, you know, inevitable really. But was it? In that part of the beach weren't any other lilos.
- [31:52]
Narrator
Guy isn't about to pass up this piece of extraordinary good fortune. There's no time to waste as the Lylo zigzags Towards him. He launches himself at the inflatable, his weary arms outstretched. His palms find the plastic and he tightens his grip on it, exhaustion and relief washing over him as the float takes his weight. But he can't rest yet. Barely pausing for breath, Guy kicks his leaden legs and slowly flounders his way towards the Spanish woman, his muscles crying out with every movement. Eventually, he gets close enough for her to grab hold of the Lilo as well, and together they cling on for dear life, their chests heaving.
- [32:39]
Guy Taplin
We held onto it and of course, it's so buoyant, you know, it was fully inflated. The wave picked us up, just carried us in. It was amazing, you know, hanging onto this Lilo, both of us were. Grim death.
- [33:00]
Narrator
Incredibly, within moments of finding the float, the pair seemed to drift out of the rip's pull, escaping the strength of the powerful current. Once out of its grip, they're swiftly carried towards the shore by the large waves, back towards the small crowd waiting anxiously on the sand.
- [33:20]
Guy Taplin
They'd formed a chain again and they took her first. They got her out and I was. I remember this feeling of total isolation and terrified. I was terrified of being taken out again to that place and have re experienced what I'd just been through. And the guy held his hand out to him, got hold of me and I said. I remember saying to him, don't let me go.
- [33:45]
Narrator
The man's hold doesn't falter. He tightens his grip on Guy's arm and pulls him from the water. Soaked to the skin and exhausted from his ordeal, Guy lurches onto the sand. His muscles are quivering, his legs reduced to jelly. He's barely able to walk.
- [34:05]
Guy Taplin
I was very, very frightened, but he did, he pulled me out and I staggered up the beach and somebody called me over and said, there's somebody else you got to have a look at.
- [34:16]
Narrator
Before he's even had a chance to recover, he is led further up the beach to a man lying face up on the sand. He kneels beside the figure, but it's quite clear there is nothing he can do.
- [34:31]
Guy Taplin
He was dead and his eyes were all full of sand. There was a newspaper there and I picked it up. He put it over his face. The sort of thing you, when you're young, you've seen people do on the telly and all that, you cover their face, you know. I then got up and just said, he's dead, you know. Nobody said anything I can remember. And I went further down the beach and there was someone giving mouth to mouth to a woman that Was being sick, another Spanish woman.
- [34:57]
Narrator
The sight of the sea's other victims is sobering, A stark indication of just how dangerous the riptide was and how close guy came to his end. After reuniting with Lou, he stumbles away from the beach to rest, the sound of the waves still rumbling behind him. The next day, guy started trying to process the whole experience, but it isn't easy.
- [35:32]
Guy Taplin
I think, really, what happened to me, I must have been in real shock without knowing it. Could people say to you, you know you're in shock and you don't know you're in shock? It's a weird, very strange feeling. And all I remember after that was, next day, someone saying to me, the guy that was dead was the owner of the local supermarket.
- [35:51]
Narrator
The deadly riptide causes scars within the small community, reverberating through the idyllic coastal town. Though despite claiming at least one life, it isn't widely reported on.
- [36:04]
Guy Taplin
I don't know why I didn't hear about it afterwards, you know, I mean, in this country, you'd hear about it, be on the news, because you. That. That was just one beach. It was all up down that Spanish bit there. A big sea was running. Other people would have been getting stuck as well. I don't know what the answer to that is.
- [36:22]
Narrator
In fact, he never even finds out the name of the woman he rescued from the water, nor what happened to her afterwards. To this day, there are elements of this story that remain difficult for Guy to fathom.
- [36:34]
Guy Taplin
That was so peculiar when I think back on it. I mean, you think that she obviously had friends on the beach, presumably probably her family. What were they doing while this was going on? I mean, I've not thought about this before. What were they doing? What was everyone doing? She was out there. Everyone could see her. What, they all sat there, didn't do anything. Nobody did anything.
- [36:53]
Narrator
As for Guy, he spends a lot of time in the aftermath of the event thinking about what happened. He feels a range of often contrasting emotions.
- [37:02]
Guy Taplin
I mean, I condemn myself a bit, you know, for letting this poor woman go out there. You have to forgive yourself, really. And I thought to myself, yeah, I did savor, though. We all think we're heroes when we're young until you get a chance to prove it. But often in those situations, you can't think in those emergencies, you hear people say, I buckled down and thought, I've got to get out of this one. In my experience, you don't get that chance. You're in frenzy, panic. I thought I was probably immune to deep trauma. And up to then, I suppose I had been. And that was probably the beginning of me, you could say, coming unstuck, you know, I wasn't in a good place.
- [37:49]
Narrator
Soon after, Guy decides to leave Spain and return home. Sadly, his relationship doesn't last. Seeking another fresh start back in England, he begins to explore his creativity and before long, he's working in fashion, making and selling belts and bags. Initially, he achieves some measure of success, but fashions change quickly.
- [38:15]
Guy Taplin
It was very much the end of the hippie period and it suddenly changed back into French fashion, really, you know, proper Chanel and all that sort of stuff. Way beyond anything I could do or would be interested in. And it was a bit of a crisis point for me. I then decided I'd got to get out of the fashion business and got a job as a labourer in Regent's Park.
- [38:39]
Narrator
It's peaceful work, surrounded by greenery and wildlife. After six months of laboring, he starts to look after the birds in the Royal park. And soon his creative side is inspired again. He begins making, making sculptures of the creatures. His work attracts attention and he starts selling his creations. In the decades since, he has become a well known and respected artist whose work is shown and sold at exhibitions across the country. Today, having married, settled down and found his sense of purpose, Guy is able to better reflect on his experiences in Spain all those years ago and on the unlikely piece of good fortune that allowed him to survive.
- [39:26]
Guy Taplin
If you wanted to call it divine intervention, I think life put it there. That Lila, for me, that's how I see it. And it's not an ego thing. I think life had a purpose for me and I think it probably created that situation as well in a way. I know anyone listening thinks on Parmi, but that's what it felt like. That's all I can say. I don't deeply believe it, but it made a big mark on me, obviously, I think trauma does.
- [39:56]
Narrator
In the six decades since his encounter with the riptide, Guy has had ample time to experience the many highs and lows of living and has remained staunchly determined to feel all of the accompanying emotions, both the bad and good.
- [40:12]
Guy Taplin
You can't go around thinking, I'm going to run into something any minute, like a mad ball charging up there or step off the curb and hit by a bus, which can happen very easily. I think it's very good to be aware. I think fear, anxiety, stress, depression, they're horrible, but they teach you a lot about life. They take you right to the edge. I'm not a brave person at all. I'm really am not. And the only reason I confront the more painful side of my life is I know if I don't, it's going to get the better of me and stop me living.
- [40:59]
Narrator
Next time on Real Survival Stories, a tale of utter mayhem in the flooded mountains of Myanmar in 2024. Joel Hoffman is living and working in the Southeast Asian country, as is his elder brother. But when a tropical typhoon unleashes catastrophic flooding on their quiet rural town, the siblings will find themselves thrust into a terrifying new position of responsibility. Trying to rescue as many locals as they can from the deluge. They'll face collapsing buildings, hidden hazards, and utter pandemonium. And when the flood cuts off their only route back home, the stakes are raised once again, it's time to sink or swim. That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen today without waiting and without adverts by joining Noiser. Hit the link in the episode description. This is your fix.
- [41:55]
Advertiser/Host
I am your host, Stassi Schroeder. Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official official podcast. What's the most unhinged thing of season three?
- [42:03]
Guy Taplin
Steven because he's so evil, I do think he is misunderstood. You see everyone face consequences. It's intoxicating.
- [42:10]
Advertiser/Host
The writers just know how to trick. Yeah, there's always a twist in this show. Tell Me Lies the official podcast January 6th. And stream the new season of Tell Me Lies January 13th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney.
- [42:23]
Guy Taplin
With verbo care, help is always ready before, during and after your stay. We've planned for the plot twists, so support is always available because a great trip starts with peace of mind.