I salute Dudley Andrews for his courageous rescue of two small boys, and for the richly deserved award he has received (Pride of NZ award for Dudley, August 13). I would like the opportunity to give even greater acknowledgment to whoever it was that taught those boys that if they were swept out to sea to not fight it but lie on their backs and kick.
The fact that they continued doing this even though they were respectively 60 metres and 100 metres out beyond the breaker line, and clearly not in a situation where they could encourage each other, shows they must have had that behaviour drilled into them to continue it for so long.
So I salute their mentor and teacher. You unquestionably saved their lives. They were tiny five- and six-year-olds against the huge power of the sea. I salute them for doing what they were taught.
So often the outcome is so different. Someone caught in a rip fights it to exhaustion and then drowns.
I urge the editor of the Age to find and acknowledge this person.
