You might be wondering what kind of alien creature a “Nematocyst” is.

Yours truly had a wonderful opportunity last weekend to be battling the Nematocysts near a beach in Cherating. The Nematocysts are actually stinging cells which is used by jellyfish to stun and kill their prey, mainly consisting of small fish.

While having a great time with my first surfing lesson, I came into contact with one of these jellyfish which mistook me as a can of delicious sardine.

At the first sting, it somehow felt like electrical shock at the point of contact. Never been bitten by a jellyfish before, I definitely wasted no time to get on to the shore to find out what kind of creature have I been messing with.

The skin starts to show red rashes as I reach for the shore. Now, it felt like as if someone poured boiling water onto my skin. It’s not long before David (our Cherating half-native) recognized the symptom as a “Nematocysts-attack”.

The solution to ease the pain is to apply ammonia onto the affected areas of the skin. And the only available ammonia on the spot will be “urine”, and I am definitely not going to let anyone piss on me, so I decided I will get some vinegar treatment when we are headed back to the resort. “Ouch! Ouch!” all the way back to the resort…

Phew…not a very good start for a noob-surfer, but at least I’ve learnt what all surfers has to go through at some point of their surfing life.

Click here for more information on Nematocysts (it’s really educational!)

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