The 18-year-old, a recent graduate from The Southport School was celebrating his graduation with close friends Daniel Quinlivan, Trent Moore and his family with the trip of a lifetime to Thailand.

Christmas Day had been fun and the pair had spent a night out in Patong Beach before returning to their hotel room to catch a few hours of sleep before another fun day of activities.

It was Sunday, December 26, 2004.

THE QUAKE STRIKES

Just before 8am a powerful earthquake, which measured more than 9.2 on the Richter scale, struck off the coast of Ache in Indonesia.

The megaquake set off a 30m-high tsunami which swept through Asia, devastating parts of Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Mr Carroll remembers waking in his Phuket hotel room as his friend Trent’s parents burst in warning of the impending disaster.

“Trent and I were just waking up after a fun night out in Patong Beach when his parents, Kerry and Vanessa came running into our room, shouting that there was a tidal wave approaching and that we needed to get out,” he told the Bulletin this week marking the 20th anniversary of the disaster.

“It honestly didn’t seem real when I think back on it.

“We had another fun day planned with beach activities, and this was the last thing any of us had expected.

“There was no time to grab any of our belongings, we just got out of there as soon as we could.”

Kerry and Vanessa Moore, from Hope Island, had been having breakfast when the tsunami hit and recalled at the time thinking there had been a terrorist attack as chaos broke out in the street before water began pouring into the hotel.

‘‘Everyone was panicking and I knew that was no good,’’ Mr Moore said at the time.

‘‘I told the family to start running – I could see the hills and told them to go in that direction.

‘‘The boys (Stephen and Trent) were still in bed so I ran upstairs, got them out, and just yelled at them to run.’’

ON THE RUN

Making it out onto the streets, Mr Carroll found himself in rapidly rising water, separated from his group.

The water was full of debris and the young man found himself covered in sewage as he ran through the streets, getting ahead of the water as it tore through buildings.

Chaos fill the packed and rapidly flooding thoroughfares as Mr Carroll began running towards the nearby mountains, pumping his legs faster and faster to outrun the incoming tsunami.

“I vividly remember running through knee-deep water among thousands of panicked people, all trying to reach higher ground,” he said.

“I did my best to stay calm, but I felt completely alone having been separated from the family I was staying with, and I was just bracing for the moment the wave broke over the city.”

“I remember being hyper-focused on getting myself to higher ground, and I think adrenaline just took over.”

Kerry Moore, Trent’s father, told the Bulletin in 2004 that he lost sight of Mr Carroll and his son Brooke, then-11 amid the chaos.

“The last time I saw Stephen, he had bolted off towards the hills, then looked back at me and said, ‘Tell me I’m not going to die’,” he said at the time.

‘‘I yelled at him to run, and he was gone – we didn’t see him again until that night.

Mr Moore recalled being unable to find Brooke who also was lost in the fray.

‘‘We lost him for about six hours, we were so, so worried,’’ he said.

‘‘His mother was just frantic … we thought he and Stephen may have been sucked out by the wave.

‘‘I later found out someone scooped Brooke up and took him up the mountain on a motorbike.

“We found him later and he was in a hell of a state.’’

Running for more than two hours, Mr Carroll found himself up in the mountains with a group of fellow tourists, many of whom where Dutch and spoke little English as they fought to stay alive.

“After a few hours, I was huddled among strangers from all around the world, with not a familiar face in sight,” he said.

“Although I thought I was technically ‘safe’, I was still fearful, as rumours were circulating that there were larger waves approaching.

“My whole body was aching, but I opted to keep pushing myself to get higher up the mountain (and) I ended up with a group of tourists who were also holidaying in Phuket, but they didn’t speak much English.

“At this point, all I wanted to do was to get a hold of my parents to let them know I was okay.”

The Carroll family watched on from their Benowa Waters home as the devastation swept through Thailand.

“It was pretty scary but Stephen’s got good survival instinct, I knew he’d be OK,’’ his father

Brian told the Bulletin in 2004.

‘‘He called as he was running up the mountain and I thought he was joking at first.

‘‘Then the phone went dead.

‘‘We didn’t hear from him for hours but then we got a text saying he was OK and that was a relief.

‘‘We were sitting here feeling sorry for him but now I find out he was enjoying a nice meal of chicken.”

SURVIVAL

The death toll, which would ultimately rise to 227,898, was extraordinary, with bodies lining the streets amid the widespread wreckage of the devastated regions across Asia.

Photographs taken by Mr Carroll in Phuket show the level of devastation, with damaged buildings and debris including boats and jet skis washed in by the giant wave, laying on the ground.

Damaged cars were impaled on trees in the middle of median strips and furniture was strewn everywhere

Nine hours after the tsunami hit, Mr Carroll and his group were still up the mountain and preparing to camp for the night, with reports still coming in that more waves were coming.

He recalls spotting a four-wheel-drive from his hotel and running towards it.

“With no passport or identification, I was fortunate that the driver recognised me, and took me straight to the Moore family, who were coincidently back at the hotel, very fortunate timing for me,” he said.

“The relief I felt in that moment was immense, however, with continued warnings of approaching waves, we only had a few moments to gather some essentials — a change of clothes and our passports — from the hotel and we quickly relocated to another hotel on higher ground where we felt more safe.

“Stepping on the plane a few days later when we were finally headed back to Australia and to my family was a great feeling.”

But before they left, the Gold Coasters returned to Patong Beach one last time and marvelled at the destruction.

‘‘The place is just ruined, there’s nothing left but wreckage, and it’s so chaotic because no one knows what’s going on,’’ Mr Moore said at the time.

“We just saw bodies being taken out of an underground supermarket – there were 150 people in there when the tidal wave hit, and they all drowned.

“That’s very upsetting, and so scary.’

AFTER THAILAND

The group left Phuket on December 29 on a flight bound for Singapore before touching down in Brisbane.

They were all alive but forever changed by their experiences on Boxing Day 2004.

Mr Carroll, who upon his return to Australia, was hailed as “the boy who outran a tsunami”, has gone on to prosperity and today lives in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.

Married and with two six-month-old twin sons, he works in the development sector.

The now-38-year-old says he has much to be grateful for but admits the events of 2004 changed the course of his life.

“Even 20 years on, the events of Boxing Day 2004 still feel surreal,” he said.

“It’s an experience I will never forget, and while I don’t think about it often, it has undeniably shaped who I am today.

“In the years after, I dealt with some anxiety and PTSD, though I never let it stop me from wanting to travel and explore the world.

“I’m very glad to say I’ve come out the other side feeling stronger and more appreciative of life, as I know there were many people who weren’t as lucky as I was on that day.”

While he has never returned to Thailand, Mr Carroll said he planned to travel there with his “family and show them the place of his miraculous survival.

Phuket is a beautiful place, and while I haven’t yet had the chance to return, I would like to go back and retrace my steps from that day with my wife and our twin boys, when they are old enough.”