Reports from Frank Dando's
Reports from Frank Dando's
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Everyone remembers their first rescue - the excitement, the thrill, and the satisfaction that all your training has been worthwhile. Here are accounts from two students at Frank Dando's Sports Aacademy.
From Jonny Benson, Age 14:
We were at Woolamai for a week for a school camp doing a surf life saving course. Most of the boys were training for their bronze medallion but as I was too young at 14, and I was trying out for my Surf Rescue Certificate. One day after we had been out on the water we were packing up our gear and had walked up to the club house when Sam, one of the teachers at our school yelled to Zak, our Vice Principal that there were three people in the rip being taken out. This is when the mood really changed. The butterflies kicked in. Everyone in the club house started running around getting flippers etc. I still had my wet suit on so I grabbed a tube and ran down to the beach with the rest of the boys. I did not know the situation and I wasn’ t sure if I was going to go out or not. I put my tube on with a few of the other guys and I ran into the water . I wasn’t in too far and the water wasn’t really deep when I got to one of the girls. She didn’t think the water was dangerous, but she was in a trough and couldn’t touch the bottom. I gave her the tube and pulled her into shallower water. James and Hugh assisted the other two. This was an exciting and rewarding experience for me being an SRC, but also scary as this was my first rescue and we were still training.
From James Douglass, Age 16:
As I was walking back to the club house I just got though the roller door when all of a sudden I heard the radio go off. I couldn’t hear what it said. Ziad quickly responded with the words,” rescue, rescue “my heart started pulsing at a amazing rate. I felt energized and I grabbed my fins and a tube and sprinted down toward the water. I felt my arms pulsing and my feet were going as fast as they could. Ziad went flying past on the atv but he stopped because Mr. Dando was in the way and I ran straight in to the back of it, but soon recovered and quickly continued to the water. I didn’t think about the waves or anything but these people who were relying on me. I ran in to the water and I got my fins on on the way. I saw Hugh and Jonny in front of me. They had someone on the tube and so I started to swim toward the group when I saw a man in front of me. He appeared to me to be shaking so I went to give him the tube but he said to help the other girl because he was nearly touching the ground and almost at the sand bank. I kept going until I came to Hugh and Jonny who had a girl on one of the tubes . I grabbed the other girl who was freaking out. I found out later she was a schoolies girl and she didn’t know how to swim. They thought the water would be shallow but they had got caught in a trough. When I got close I threw the tube to her and told her I was a life saver and I just kept reassuring her that it would be fine . I got her to shore and I unbuckled her from the tube. When I realized my feet were finally on the sand my heart started to slow down but I felt so alive likeI had just been sky diving or swimming with sharks but I felt good inside and it felt like nothing I had ever experienced. The girl said nothing but she just ran back to her friends she didn’t even give me a look or a thanks but I didn’t care because I knew that if I or my mates were not there she might not be around.
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