Torquay doctor Chris Hair saves teenagers from rip at Surf Coast beach

A doctor bravely ran into the surf to save three teenagers on surfboards from a dangerous rip at a Surf Coast beach.

Dr Chris Hair saved a group of high school children from a rip at Torquay Surf Beach on Tuesday. Picture: Alan Barber

                 

A Torquay doctor bravely rescued a group of teenagers from a dangerous rip at an unpatrolled Surf Coast beach on Tuesday.

Chris Hair headed down to Torquay Surf Beach, near the town’s surf lifesaving club, about 3pm to use his standup paddle board.

“But the conditions were pretty terrible,” he said.

“It was very windy and there was a solid south easterly swell.

“That makes is quite challenging in the water.”

Dr Hair, who is a gastroenterologist at Epworth Geelong, was on shore on a work call when he noticed a group of youths, believed to be in secondary school, with surfboards drifting

“a long way out”.

“I thought they were from the local surf academy but they kept drifting further and further out.”

Torquay Surf Beach is not patrolled by surf lifesavers at this time of year and the patrol season does not begin until November.

Torquay Surf Beach where Dr Chris Hair rescued a group of teenagers from a rip on Tuesday afternoon. Picture: Alan Barber

Dr Hair saw a few of the teenagers ditch their surfboards and try to swim in.

A few made it to shore but a group was still caught in the rip and had started to panic.

“That’s the danger point, when they start to panic … and they were still a long way out,” he said.

“I cut my work call short and quickly grabbed my board off the roof (of my car) and pulled on my wetsuit.

“I rang my mate who runs the kiosk down there because he is often rescuing when the beach isn’t patrolled but he was in town so it was just me.”

Dr Hair then ran into the surf and started to paddle out towards the kids.

“But the time I got there, there were three students still out there and three (other) adults who came out to help,” he said.

“You just needed a local person in the water to show them the way back in because they were a long way out.”

Dr Hair guided the kids out of the rip and kept the group calm while he paddled alongside them back to the shore.

“I know that area very well so it wasn’t too hard to get them back to the beach,” he said.

“I was a bit like a tug boat for them and steered them back to shore.

“As soon as we get out of the danger of the rip, we were in flat water so we paddled back.”

Despite his brave efforts, Dr Hair said he doesn’t consider himself a hero.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” he said.

“You just needed a local person in the water to show them the way back in because they were a long way out.”

It’s understood the teenagers were not locals and were on a school camp.

“It worked out well in the end,” Dr Hair said.

“Hopefully they are enjoying their camp and certainly those students will have something to talk about with their mates.”

The Geelong region is expected to get another taste of summer on Thursday with a top of 27C and scattered showers.

Mild conditions are forecast over the weekend with a high of 20C.

Originally published as Torquay doctor Chris Hair saves teenagers from rip at Surf Coast beach