Selfless act before 35yo father drowned at Penrith beach

A young father who drowned at a newly-opened Sydney beach was seen performing a final selfless act before he tragically died.

A father was holding his “panicked” children who couldn’t swim above the water before he drowned Sydney’s new man-made beach.

Seti Tuaopepe, 35, drowned at Penrith Beach in Castlereagh on Boxing Day, a week after the site opened to the public.

A fellow beachgoer said the St Mary’s father had been paddleboarding with his three children 20 metres from the shore before he went missing about 2.35pm on Tuesday.

“He had the same stand up paddle board as me,” Penrith local John Savill told The Daily Telegraph.

“I headed out (into the water) with my children and we weren’t in the swimming area and he (the man) attempted to do the same thing.

Seti Tuaopepe drowned while paddleboarding with his children at Penrith Beach on Tuesday Photo: Facebook

The incident occurred 20 metres away from the shore. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Savill said the father and the children – whom he believed were around 10 years old – were sitting on the paddleboard when they fell into the water and started “panicking and pushing him under”.

“None of them could swim,” he said.

“By the time I got there we got all three kids onto the paddle board and he was less than a metre away from me and then a second later he had disappeared.”

Mr Savill was among others who helped search for Mr Tuaopepe, who originally grew up in Samoa, before emergency services arrived.

“Once I got the kids on the board, I pushed them towards my father-in-law and he took them to the beach and I went back searching for the guy,” he said.

Mr Tuaopepe’s body was found four hours later at about 6.15pm.

Mr Tuaopepe’s body was found after a desperate four hour search. Picture: Supplied.

9News reported while lifeguards were on duty, Mr Tuaopepe was swimming outside the designated safe swimming zone.

Mr Tuaopepe’s death brought Australia’s post-Christmas drowning death toll to four.

Friends of the 35-year-old have taken to social media to post tributes.

“You were kind, silent and a very gentle classmate,” one friend wrote on Facebook.

“You were a family man … condolences to your wife, children and family. Rest in peace and in the loving arms of our Lord.”

Penrith Beach is a man-made waterway, built on the site of an old quarry at a cost of around $1.7m.

It only opened to the public on December 19.