Northern beaches: Deaths and surf rescue figures released
Surf Life Saving has revealed how many deaths and how many rescues were performed on the northern beaches last season, while the heroics of two volunteers have also emerged.
Manly
Don't miss out on the headlines from Manly. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Update on painter critical after falling 3 metres from ladder
- Fears rare fish at risk in $18m development
Two people died in the waters off the northern beaches and 390 were rescued by volunteer lifesavers last season.
The statistics for the 2019/2020 season – which finished four weeks early due to COVID-19 – saw another 1186 people receive first aid on the peninsula.
Surf patrol volunteers also intervened 22,800 times on the peninsula to help prevent incidents.
The two deaths involved a spear fisherman who died at Bilgola and a man who was knocked out of a small boat by a wave at Long Reef.
The Long Reef incident has been confirmed as a drowning, but the coroner has yet to draw a verdict on the cause of death in the Bilgola tragedy.
Meanwhile, the heroics of two volunteers during the season from the northern beaches SLS family have emerged.
Alex Taylor from Mona Vale SLSC and Jemima McGahey from Palm Beach SLSC did back-to-back saves while on a weekend away at Seven Mile Beach, near Forster last year.
They rescued a number of people from a father and son camping party from the Belmore Mosque in Western Sydney.
The first man they rescued was Aref Elmustapha, who had got caught in rip.
“He was not in a good way. He was out of breath, off colour and he’d taken on water,” Mr Taylor said.
They called triple-0 and waited with Mr Elmustapha until paramedics arrived.
To say thank you for rescuing the man, his friends invited the two lifesavers to join them for lunch the next day at their campsite, where the pair talked to them about beach safety.
Despite the successful lesson on beach safety, they were called upon again to help four people from the same party caught in another rip, further up the beach, the next day.
Two people were struggling to stay above the water.
“We pulled the two guys out. They were in a bad way. They were both vomiting and had taken on water,” Mr Taylor said.
For the second time that weekend, they called triple-0 and monitored the patients until help arrived.
Reflecting on the incident, Mr Taylor said that there were so many people in distress, he found the situation almost overwhelming.
“I thought we’d probably lose someone. It was the scariest rescue I’ve ever done,” he said.
“If we weren’t there, people would have drowned. I’m certain about that.”
Last year the pair were reunited with the men and received an award from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Following the release of the figures for the season, Surf Life Saving NSW President George Shales said that volunteers throughout the state had worked tirelessly in the last year.
“Clearly our vigilance is paying off and there were a number of life saving rescues, including resuscitations, that ended positively,” he said.
“We’re proud of our volunteers who respond so professionally to these incidents – many of them outside volunteer patrol hours.”
He also said it was a strange and “unprecedented” season, with the bushfires and a pandemic, with surf life savers volunteering their services to help in both instances.