Your article and pictures "Beach game can be deadly" (The Argus, August 20) brought back memories.

In the Fifties when I was a youngster my school friends and I used to jump with delight if we saw seas like those in the picture.

We would leave school and see who could be first down on the beach, usually by the Banjo groyne which was our favourite spot in those days.

When the surf was up we would dive into the breakers and out the other side, then swim back to shore and see how far up the beach we could get from the wave.

Needless to say we were all proficient swimmers as we all learned to swim at a very early age. I was able to swim from the Banjo groyne to the Palace Pier when I was eight years old. Are modern children that competent?

I think not and this is due to the political correctness that has infested the modern education system and seems to punish proficiency at sport.

Kids in Brighton have been surf diving for ages and any competent swimmer will not suffer any problems as the article implies.

The modern problem I would say is with those who are intoxicated from any of the all-day-open bars that proliferate along Brighton's front. Those who jump from the Palace Pier and hurt or kill themselves are usually not locals and don't know local conditions.

I grew up here and never hurt myself jumping from the pier. But then I was sober and never jumped at low water.

-Rod Ackers, Portslade