Matt Williams Surf Life Saving Northern Region CEO talks water safety and his top tips for keeping out of trouble. Video / NZ Herald
The surfer who rescued a woman and her two young children from “a horrendous rip” in Mount Maunganui is pleading for people to stay out of the water.
Glenn Osborne rescued the trio near the Sunbrae Grove access about an hour after two elderly people were rescued by another bystander in nearly the same spot.
The five rescues have prompted the local surf lifesaving manager to sound the same warning.
Osborne told the Bay of Plenty Times as a surfer he often used rips as highways past the breakers but had never experienced anything like this before.
“I’ve been on this coast all my life but I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve been living in this spot for 20 years and this rip was through the roof.”
Aged 7 and 8, the children were only in water up to the midway point of their shins near the access when Osborne first spotted them while walking along the beach with his wife.
Within 20 seconds they were completely submerged, being sucked out to sea and “screaming for their mum”.
Osborne sprinted 30 to 40 metres and jumped into the water to lend a hand. By that point, the mother was entering the water too.
“[The rip] was pretty turbulent and deep as. I couldn’t touch the bottom and I’m six-foot. There was no way until I was within five metres of the beach and I could only just touch the bottom.
“The screams were horrendous.
The rip near the Sunbrae Grove access. Photo / Supplied
“The mum was panicking because she realised she couldn’t do it so I tried calming them down a bit and pulled them on an angle towards the beach.”
He managed to fight the current on an angle and get the children close enough to a bar where a bystander was standing to grab them but when Osborne turned around the mother was being swept back out to sea.
“It was like she was getting pulled away from her kids and that was going to be the end of it. That was a game changer and I had to do everything to get her back in.”
After reaching her and helping her calm down, the pair fought their way back to safety.
The children were “bawling” and had swallowed a lot of water but were okay. The mother thanked Osborne for saving their lives.
“I hate to say it but we would have had three fatalities,” he said.
“The look on those kids and the mum she knew there was no way she could save them and the panic ensued real quick.”
Osborne’s message was simple for anyone not comfortable in the water.
Surf Lifesaving NZ eastern region manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell said there were lots of holes, troughs and rips along the coast from Mount Maunganui to Pāpāmoa that were threatening but the Sunbrae one was “pretty gnarly”.
“I passed probably about another eight that size on the way down from Omanu down to Arataki and a number of other small holes and troughs that can catch a lot of people out.
“We’re just really concerned that with this good weather, there are lots of people swimming after work and after school.
“We want them to be extra careful, read the ocean if they can, and preferably don’t go in - and wait till the weekends and swim between the flags.”
The council-funded guards finished their patrols the week before last and after the recent storm swells, plenty of sand had been churned up and “drain pipes” along the coastline were pumping out heaps of water and causing problems.
“These are right next to accessways and when people see a calm patch they think it’s a great place to swim but it’s chest-high deep and people are pulled off their feet,” Gibbons-Campbell said.
