Grace under pressure

OPINION: Back in the mid-1980s, Gore doctor Kevin Sampson made headlines worldwide in circumstances that, of late, seem just a tad familiar, writes The Southland Times in an editorial.

He was playing cricket on Riverton beach when the cry went out from the water: shark!

Although the film Jaws was still vivid in people's minds, the good doctor was nothing if not purposeful on behalf of the bathing children around him. Bat in hand, he waded a short distance into the surf, grabbed the passing fish by the tail, gave it a wallop and pulled it out.

It was not, it turned out, a particularly prepossessing shark. Nevertheless the story became one of the most far-travelled and widely reproduced of any that had issued from The Southland Times during the decade. It was certainly more widely reported than such comparative non-events as the 1984 floods with zero reported deaths.

It isn't hard to understand why. Apart from the hard-case componentry, and perhaps the fact that it wasn't a particularly busy news period, the story picked up added media appeal because it gave headline-writing and text-enhancing sub-editors the chance to exercise their eye for imagery and their weakness for puns. People the other side of the world were reading tedious "hit for six" lines and, more elegant accounts evoking the sound of sharkskin on willow.

Now we have a similar dynamic from a similar tale: 14-year-old Lydia Ward, of Invercargill, swimming off Oreti Beach, accidentally brushed against, or perhaps stood on a 1.5m shark. Then it bit her on the thigh, so she gave it a hit on the head with her boogie board, and it let go. Although it pierced her wetsuit and gave her puncture wounds, the wounds were mercifully not serious.

Put like that, it doesn't sound especially dramatic, and nobody could accuse Lydia of embellishing her account. Rather, what emerged was an interesting yet measured description that enhanced the impression, given by her actions, that this was a poised young woman.

That poise has been sorely tested by the extent of media interest. The story has gone global, to the extent that a Google news search reveals more than 375 separate reports. It has been among the highest-rated on the BBC website and Yahoo, and media have been assailing her with interview requests. After something of a network battle from the United States, CBS beat its rivals to screen an interview with her and her father Tim.

Intimidating stuff, but she handled herself impressively. "You are unbelievable," the interviewing anchor concluded, admiringly.

Unbelievable is, of course, hardly the right word. Lydia was entirely believable as a capable teenager. Part of the viewing enjoyment was from seeing the pressure being well handled. In some respects it may even have struck US audiences, in particular, as an antidote to the distasteful Balloon Boy saga, concocted out of a desperation for publicity.For her part, Lydia has explained to her friends that the story has been blown out of proportion; and, yes, there has been an element of beatup out there, notably the occasional concocted illustration which promotes the shark to great white proportions.

Now Lydia is looking forward to the hype retreating so that "people would just forget about me". Not entirely they won't, though a degree of letting alone might now be in order.

It does us no harm to let stories like this – and for that matter the stunningly impressive academic achievements of Maria English, daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Bill English – remind us that not all teens out there are tear-up-the-road hoons.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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