PLETTENBERG BAY - TEEN RESCUED FROM RIP CURRENT AT ROBBERG BEACH BY JOGGER

At 18h21, Monday, 01 April, NSRI Plettenberg Bay duty crew were activated following reports from Leah Berman, from Cape Town, on holiday with her family at their house at Robberg Beach reporting a young male, their family friend, caught in a rip current at Board Number 27 – Robberg Beach – between Robberg 5 and the Beacon Island hotel.

The sea rescue craft Rescue Free Runner and a Side by Side was launched and our rescue vehicle responded.

On arrival on the scene the Johannesburg 15 year old male had been rescued by local Good Samaritan Brian Bailey using an NSRI Pink Rescue Buoy.

The teenager, Samora Tembe, 15, of Johannesburg, family friend’s of the Berman’s from Cape Town, was not injured and he required no further assistance.

NSRI medics checked on Samora and he was fine and in good spirits.

Saul Berman of Cape Town, Leah’s dad, an avid supporter of NSRI for many years and more recently an avid supporter of our Pink Rescue Buoy program specifically asked NSRI Plettenberg Bay, some time ago, to place an NSRI Pink Rescue Buoy on the beach in front of his house at Robberg 5 due to the frequency of incidents at that beach where a rip current prevails.

We complied without hesitation, said Marc Rodgers, NSRI Plettenberg Bay station commander as Saul had sponsored a number of NSRI Pink Rescue Buoys.

While swimming Samora got into trouble in the surf, he was caught in a rip current, Leah raised the alarm calling NSRI on her cellphone.

Samora was caught in the current and trying to swim against it. We later determined, although he is a strong swimmer, he was unaware of the rip current and did not know to swim across the beach to free himself from the current. A life lesson he learnt today admitted the teenager with a broad smile.

Leah saw a male jogger on the beach, local Brian Bailey, she was wading in shallow water and requested the assistance of the jogger pointing out Samora struggling in the surf, her brother Zack ran to fetch the pink buoy off the board while Brian stripped off his jogging gear and with the Pink buoy in his hand, launched into the surf. While wading through the surf towards the teenager he shouted at him to move sideways to free himself from the rip but the teenager still made no progress. He then popped onto the sand bank and was finally safe and Brian waded with the teenager safely to shore.

via - NSRI