Dee Why Lagoon: Heroic Sydney flood rescue caught on camera

Drone footage has emerged of heroic surfers and beachgoers saving an elderly man from being swept out to sea in a raging torrent caused by Sydney’s wild weather.

Drone footage has emerged of heroic surfers and beachgoers saving an elderly man from being swept out to sea in a raging torrent caused by Sydney’s wild weather.

The men and teenagers leapt into the swirling rapids to grab the man who has been knocked off his feet as water rushed from the entrance to Dee Why Lagoon, on the city’s northern beaches.

Surfers and beachgoers rescue a man swept away by the powerful current as water rushed from the entrance to Dee Why Lagoon into the ocean at Long Reef Beach on February 23, 2022. Image: Instagram - skykmonkey5.

As the rescuers held the exhausted man’s head above the foaming water cutting across Long Reef Beach, they too were swept towards the crashing breakers.

When the group was pushed towards the northern edge of the channel, more surfers tossed away their boards and boogie boards and reached out pull the man to safety.

The footage was captured by a local drone pilot and Instagrammer, known as skymonkey5, who had been at the beach to film surfers.

“But the waves were not great that day,” skymonkey5 said.

Surfers and beachgoers rescue a man swept away by the powerful current as water rushed from the entrance to Dee Why Lagoon into the ocean at Long Reef Beach on February 23, 2022. Image: Instagram - skykmonkey5.

“Then I saw the commotion at the entrance to the lagoon. Those guys did a great jobs saving that man.”