Unrelated teenage surfers rescued swimmers from drowning off the south coast of Australia on two separate occasions last week, proving that while the stereotype of young surfers is one of laxness, it isn’t all a bad thing.
It was November 18th that six friends aged between 12 and 15 were boogie boarding on Kiama Beach in the Australian state of New South Wales, when just 20 minutes after rescue personnel finished their shift and went home for the day, they became aware via screaming that 6 people had been swept hundreds of meters out to sea in a rip current.
A mom with her three young daughters, and two young women were all caught in the violent water, leaving buddies Max Laird, Braith Davidson, George Griffin, Harrison Smee, Alex Norris, and Zach Marsden as the only entity on the beach able to affect a rescue.
Luckily, these strapping young lads are all members of the Kiama Surf Life Saving Club, and Harrison, the oldest of the crew at 15, led them back to dry land on their boards to save some lives.
George described the event as “shocking,” but told ABC News Australia that “we just had to do what we could.”
“I got to an 8, 9-year-old kid called Matt, and by the time I got to him he was completely underwater, just his hand above the surface of the water, so I was pretty worried,” said George.
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Harrison, George, and their comrades rescued all 6 girls, just nights after another group of surfers on another beach rescued another person—this time a distressed teenage boy swimming alone after safety patrol hours.
This rescue, which took place on Jones Beach about 2 miles north of Kiama Beach, was carried out by high schoolers Lucas Mak, George Kalajzich, and Dax Cairncross who used a surfboard to reach the drowning fellow who had also been caught in a “rip” as they call it Down Under.
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“We met the guy out in the rip and started paddling back to the shore slowly. He couldn’t really walk so his mates picked him up,” Lucas said.
A spokesman for the Surf Life Saving Club said that the rescues were a testament to the awareness, bravery, and focus that can be shown even by young people when given the right training, as the youngest rescuer involved was just 12 years old.
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