By ALANA MITCHELSON
A beach outing with friends after exams turned into a heartracing rescue mission for a group of 10 teenagers in Geelong this week.
The 16-year-olds were at Eastern Beach when they spotted a boy drowning in rough water amid 100km/h winds about 12.30pm Wednesday.
Corio’s Riley Redford said he thought the boy was OK when he entered the swimming enclosure but realised minutes later that he was struggling to keep afloat.
“He was pretty far away, on the opposite side of the enclosure to us, close to the lap pool near the edge of the bay,” Riley told the Indy.
“I’m not a swimmer, so I yelled out to my friend, Mark, to ask the boy if he needed help.
“When we ran along the jetty to get closer to him, he tilted his head up, looked really distressed and started screaming out.”
Riley’s friend Mark Mutzelburg of Bannockburn jumped into the choppy water and swam out to the boy.
“The water was really choppy and the strong winds made it hard to hear,” Riley said.
“In trying to keep the boy above water, Mark kept being sent under the waves because the conditions were so bad.”
Riley said another friend, Frankie Pelle, also jumped in to help.
The pair tried to take the boy ashore but struggled to swim against a strong current, so they decided to lift him onto a pontoon in the centre of Eastern Beach’s swimming enclosure.
The boy hit his head as the waves pushed him under the pontoon before the teenagers lifted him to safety.
Mark and Frankie then collapsed, so exhausted they were unable to stand.
The teenagers said the boy looked unwell and told them he felt a seizure coming on.
Riley called an ambulance at 12.53pm, which arrived about 10 minutes later.
Mark, Frankie and other teenagers sat with the boy on the pontoon for more than an hour, keeping him calm and still.
SES southwest duty officer Ian Carlton said his team, the coast guard and police attended.
“It was going to take us time to get a rescue boat out to them, so an air ambulance was called to the scene,” Mr Carlton said.
“The choppy water, with waves well over half a metre, made it difficult for the boat, so a paramedic was lowered onto the pontoon from above and stabilised the boy. He was sitting up but not talking much.
“About 15 minutes later we were able to transfer him into the boat to bring him ashore and he was sent to hospital.”
Mark said the boy looked better before leaving in the ambulance but the situation could have easily ended badly.
“If we had tried to bring him ashore we wouldn’t have made it. We would’ve all drowned – the waves and current were that bad.”
