Freshwater drowning victim identified as Ivan Korolev

An 18-year-old who drowned while swimming off Freshwater Beach on Saturday night has been remembered by his heartbroken mother as a ‘shy and humble’ adventurer.

A teenager who drowned at Freshwater Beach was a talented parkour enthusiast with a love of the outdoors.

Ivan Korolev, 18, went missing on Saturday night when he and two mates went for a swim at 8pm.

The two friends contacted police when they lost sight of Ivan in the dark, sometime around 8.15pm.

A massive land, sea and air search was initiated stretching from North Curl Curl headland along the coastline to Bluefish Point, but there was no sign of the swimmer.

The search began again at first light on Sunday the teenager’s devastated parents and friends kept a vigil on the beach.

Ivan Korolev, 18, drowned at Freshwater Beach on Saturday night.

Tragically, the teenager’s body was found in water off Freshwater Beach at 9.15am on Sunday.

Ivan’s heartbroken mother Anna Zolotukhina told The Daily Telegraph he was a shy and humble boy who was adored by his younger two siblings.

He had been accepted into Australian Catholic University to study sports and fitness and was weeks away from starting.

“He was one of the strongest and the nicest person I’ve ever known,” Ms Zolotukhina said.

“He just graduated Mosman High….he was an avid parkor athlete.”

COVID coverage on the Northern Beaches. Freshwater beach was very busy with beach goers. Photo: Tim Pascoe

“Had a lot of friends and 2 of them were swimming with him that day.”

Ms Zolotukhina said her son lead a very healthy lifestyle, and was happiest when he was outdoors.

“He did exercise everyday. Was doing martial arts from the age of five,” she said.

On a Sydney northern beaches Facebook account where news of the discovery of Ivan’s body was posted, Ms Zolotukhina sadly replied: “my son, my son”.

On his social media accounts, Ivan regularly posted videos of his parkour accomplishments.

He commented one one post that he is a “lover of all things outdoors”.

Parkour is a training discipline where participants attempt to get from one place to the next - usually by jumping - without equipment.

NSW Police said there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the man’s death, and a report will be prepared for the Coroner.

Embargoed for The Daily Telegraph use only. Picture supplied to the Daily Telegraph by the family. Pictured is 18-year-old boy who drowned at Freshwater Beach - Ivan Korolev.

Surf Life Saving Australia this week released the national 2022/2023 summer coastal drowning statistics — and they’re chilling.

In 90 days — from December 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023 — there were more than 6000 rescues performed along Australia’s coastline and 54 drowning deaths, more than half of those in NSW. That was 14 per cent above the 10-year average.

Ivan’s death brings the NSW toll since December 1 to 29.

More than 40 per cent of the deaths were due to rip currents, a 70 per cent increase on the 10-year average. Rip currents remain the number one coastal hazard, with around 17,000 rip currents across the country on any given day.

Men continue to be over-represented in drowning figures, accounting for four out of five deaths.

With the warm weather continuing, authorities are concerned there’s more to come.

Brent Manieri, operations manager for public safety for Surf Life Saving NSW, said with 100 per cent of the summer’s coastal drowning deaths occurring either at an unpatrolled area, outside patrol hours, or outside the red and yellow flags, authorities were looking at a range of other ways to keep people safe.

Traditional messaging to “stay between the flags” and visit patrolled beaches is only applicable at the state’s 129 patrolled beaches — there are several hundred more which are unpatrolled.

“We’ve had as bad a summer as I can recall, with the most drownings along the NSW coastline that we’ve ever seen,” Mr Manieri said.

“These are occurring at unpatrolled locations, outside the red and yellow flags, so we need the community to take heed of the messaging, to work with us to try and drive down that figure.

“SLSNSW is working with a wide range of landholders and managers on how to roll out a multifaceted approach so we can cover more of the coastline.

“We can’t have active patrols at every beach, but we are increasingly surveying known black spots remotely, and aiming to get emergency response beacons at more of those locations so members of the public can make contact with us, and we can take control of the cameras on those beacons to get more situational awareness of what is happening and provide advice while calling in backup.

Only 129 NSW beachs are patrolled. Picture: Rae Wilson

“While we can’t put the red and yellow flags up at every beach, we can have roaming patrols such as rescue jet skis in the area and able to respond quickly. These are just some of the ways we are working to better cover the large swathes of coastline.”

Mr Manieri also encouraged people to be proactive when heading to enjoy the water.

“People are enjoying the warmer weather after colder, wetter summers; they’re enjoying the freedom after pandemic lockdowns and restrictions, but it also means they’re going to the beach more and venturing further, so they’re often ending up at beaches they’re not familiar with,” he said.

“I’d encourage everyone on arrival at a beach to take time to observe the conditions, look for rips and other potential hazards. To understand what the conditions are and recognise whether they have the skill and experience to go into the water. Ensure you’re with someone else to call for help if needed, again take a flotation device.

“If you do get into trouble, try to relax and float and signal for assistance. The less energy you use up, the more time lifesavers will have to get on scene and assist you.”

Adults who were not confident in the surf, or who had missed out on swimming lessons when young, should not feel embarrassed to attend lessons to strengthen their swimming, Mr Manieri said, because far too many Australians — and visitors — did not have sufficient skills in the water to deal with the conditions.

Mr Manieri also praised lifesavers and lifeguards for the thousands of lives they had saved this season.

“The amount of work they have undertaken to make sure there has been no more fatalities is immeasurable,” he said.

“Over 6000 rescues, and in excess of 300,000 preventative actions at beaches across NSW.”