Australian surf stars Tyler and Mikey Wright save woman’s life in dramatic Hawaii rescue
Surfing stars Tyler and Mikey Wright spent New Year’s Eve pulling off a dramatic rescue in rough surf in Hawaii, saving a woman’s life. WATCH THE VIDEO.
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Australian pro surfing stars and siblings Tyler and Mikey Wright have saved a woman’s life in a dramatic rescue on Hawaii’s North Shore.
Fresh from her historic win at the Roxy Pro at Pipeline before Christmas, two-time world champion Tyler was kicking back with friends and her brother at a house on Ke Iki Beach on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.
Mikey, 24, had just returned from the bottle shop with a case of beer and joined Tyler, 27, in the front yard when they spotted a woman washed off the rocks by rough waves at the notoriously dumpy break.
Mikey, who competed in the Pipeline Masters last month, pulled out his phone and started filming as bystanders on the beach tried to reach the woman.
“Then I realised it was getting pretty dangerous so I gave my wife my phone and said ‘let’s go get her’,” he told The Saturday Telegraph.
Mikey sprinted down the beach and waded into the water while Tyler followed and directed him from the sand.
At the time, the lifeguards on duty were performing another rescue down the beach.
After growing up surfing and surf life saving in Culburra on NSW south coast, Tyler said instincts just kicked in.
“It is an old lifesaving trick — one goes in and one directs from the beach because the situation can change any minute,” she said.
Footage of the harrowing rescue shows powerful waves pulling the woman across the rocks as she struggles to keep her head above water.
“She was trying to come in (over the rocks) and I said ‘we have to go down the beach’,” Mikey said.
“We ended up grabbing a hold of her and going down with the current.
“I just said to her ‘don’t let go and hold on’.”
As Mikey grabbed hold of the woman, a huge wave ploughed into them and swept their legs out from underneath.
The force of the wave also knocked Tyler, who was yelling at Mikey from the sand to direct him safely in, off her feet.
“I put my body on the line as a pillow to the rocks and tried to keep her on top of me,” Mikey said.
“At the end of the day she is safe and I only have a few scratches on my back.”
The woman’s son came sprinting up the sand afterwards, leapt on Tyler and thanked him for saving his mother’s life.
She was taken to hospital for observation. Mikey said the woman was lucky not to have any deep gashes from the rocks.
Mikey and Tyler, who got to crack open those beers when they returned to the house, put their quick thinking down to experience in the ocean.
“Our surf lifesaving came into play, and knowing how to read the ocean,” Tyler said.
Tyler made history last month when she claimed victory at the Roxy Pro at Pipeline, the first time a woman’s event had ever been held at the world-famous break.
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