Young heroes of the surf

DANIELLE CETINSKI

TWO Kiama boys could be nominated for bravery awards after they pulled a man from a rip at Bombo Beach on Australia Day.

Fletcher Atkins and Jacob Robinson, both 15, were driving with a friend about 7pm when a police car behind them flashed its lights to pass.

The trio decided to follow the police to the southern end of Bombo Beach, where a man had already been struggling in the water for half an hour.

“We thought it was a shark at first,” Jacob said. “He was swimming straight against the rip and getting nowhere,” Fletcher said.

About 20 of the man’s friends, who had travelled to Kiama from Sydney, were also at the scene.

Volunteer lifeguards had not yet arrived, so the police asked the two whether they could swim well.

Fletcher and Jacob took a body board to retrieve the man.

They towed the man across the beach before returning to shore.

He panicked a little when a large set of waves came, but the two boys, who attend Kiama High School, never thought their own safety was in jeopardy.

This incident was one of two rescues at the same rip on Australia Day. The stretch of beach was unpatrolled on both occasions.

A 14-year-old boy was swept 200m from shore at 2pm and was rescued by Kiama Council lifeguards.

Head Lifeguard Andrew Mole was one of them.

“I was just driving past,” he said. “I was so lucky I was there at the right time.”

Mr Mole said this season had been busy for the lifeguards with 57 rescues completed so far on Kiama beaches, up from 37 at the same time last year.

Despite the amount of signage advising swimmers where not to swim, the majority of rescues occurred in unpatrolled waters.

Meanwhile, at Kiama Surf Beach, a 16-year-old girl under the influence of alcohol jumped into a whirlpool about 3.15pm on Australia Day and blacked out.

She had been lying face-down in the water before a bystander pulled her out by the hair.

“She was so lucky,” Sergeant David Wheatley from Kiama Police said. “It highlights the dangers of alcohol.”