" I just saved someone's life"

Roo was off-duty back in January when he visited Ocean Grove Beach. And he had no grand plans: just a few hours chilling with his girlfriend by the water’s edge.

The 17-year-old knew the beach well. It was a short walk from his childhood home, and he’d been swimming there for many years. He had joined the local surf club as a nipper at age seven and had lost count of how many hours he had trained in those waters.

The beach was especially busy that day, so Roo and his girlfriend found a quiet spot about 500 metres away from the patrol area. They’d wander back up the beach to swim between the flags later: or so they thought. Then, they heard a commotion.

“A girl was standing waist-deep in the water, screaming that her brother was in trouble,” Roo recalls. The distraught woman was pointing out to sea, where Roo could see a head bobbing up occasionally. He instantly realized the swimmer had been caught in a rip and was in serious trouble.

Roo’s instinct and training kicked in immediately. He sprinted straight into the water, not knowing what to expect. As his girlfriend ran up the beach to alert the on-duty surf lifesavers, Roo swam to the man reaching him quickly by expertly navigating the same rip that had swept out the distressed swimmer.

The young surf lifesaver knew just how dangerous the situation was for the swimmer, and for him.

You see, during the summer just gone, 43% of all coastal drowning fatalities around Australia were related to rip currents. In that moment, Roo was risking his own life to save another.

By the time Roo reached him, the man was in serious distress, and understandably panicked. Roo knew his first priority was to calm him down.

“Like many swimmers in distress, he initially pushed me down as I reached him. When I came back up, I remember saying something like ‘It’s okay. I’m a lifesaver. I’m here to save you. It’s going to be alright.”

Just as he had been taught to do, Roo put his hand under the man to help him float and regain his composure. When the swimmer had his breathing under control, Roo began to take him to the shore. By the time he reached the back of the breakers, the on-duty surf lifesavers were in the water and ready to take over.

An exhausted Roo walked up the beach to the cheers of the crowd who had gathered. He barely heard it, as he was focused on the young man he had just rescued. By then, the swimmer was on oxygen and being rushed to hospital by paramedics for a check-up.

As he gathered his composure, Roo briefly called his mum. In disbelief, the 17-year-old told her: “I just saved someone’s life.”

For his mother Al, it was a moment of immense pride, but one tinged with ‘what-ifs’.

“Of course, I was incredibly proud of my son,” Al says. “But I remember getting off that call and thinking: if things had gone differently, that could have been someone calling to tell me that Roo went to rescue someone, but he too had been lost.”

Al is comforted by the knowledge that her son, like her volunteer surf lifesaver daughter, has received an incredible amount of training and knows how to assess the dangers of the ocean, but that comes at a cost. With almost 190,000 members and 315 affiliated Surf Life Saving Clubs, Surf Life Saving Australia represents the largest volunteer movement of its kind in the nation and the world.

It costs at least $850 to train each volunteer surf lifesaver to Bronze Medallion standard. And then there’s the cost of purchasing and maintaining rescue gear and equipment year-round.

The young man Roo rescued that day was in his mid-20s and had been coming to that beach all his life. He’d never been in trouble in the water before. All it took was for him to get caught in a rip and within minutes, he was in a fight for his life.

Thankfully, that swimmer’s life was saved: and he and his family are forever grateful to Roo for his heroic actions.

As it turned out, not only was the young man’s sister on the beach with him during that terrifying ordeal, but his mother was also there. Can you imagine their distress if Roo had not come to the rescue?

The family reached out to Roo in the days following that event, as Roo explains in the enclosed brochure. As you’ll read, he still gets a little emotional when he thinks of that day, and the ‘what-ifs’.

One day, our volunteers could save the life of someone you know and love. Or possibly your own. As we say: you-don’t-need-us-until-you-need-us.