“During the war, I was a lifeguard down here,” his voice is still strong. I didn’t know this. “Bloody dangerous. I was in the Home Guard too. We put all these floating contact mines in the water. In case the Japs got their subs in here. So when we went surfing you had to hope to God you didn’t come off your board, cos if you hit one of those things, you’d be black and blue for days. One bloke cracked his head open. I cracked my board.”