Mass Rescue - First Weekend of Patrols

Published: October 04, 2023

What a start to the 2023/24 Season. Patrols 1, 2, 3 & 4 were greeted by typical Coolum conditions with 2-3 foot swell, wind, sweeps and flash rips.
On Saturday Patrols 1 & 2 worked together to complete a mass rescue right on changeover. The account as told by PC for Patrol 1:

After a mostly uneventful Saturday morning for P1, at around 11:50am conditions between the flags started to deteriorate rapidly. After consulting with each other the PC’s for P1 and P2 decide the flags should be moved. As P2 were still rocking up and therefore slightly understaffed at the time, P1 decided to stay on a bit and help move the flags. During this process, at exactly 12:02pm a group of young teenagers, who were at one stage between the flags, got caught in a very strong rip and started to get swept out to sea. A combined mass rescue between P1 and P2 members saw three victims recovered close to shore with tubes. Another 2 victims got swept out to sea but were quickly attended to by young members Flynn Skipper and Hugo Cornacchia who came to the aid with tubes and kept the victims afloat. One of the victims was returned to shore by a member on a board (Ryan McCaffrey) whilst the last victim was rescued by the awesome father and son IRB team of Shane and Logan Pieters who then quickly returned to the fray to pick up Hugo.

A very successful mass rescue mission with no victims spending too much time in distress, due to the awareness and skills of two patrols, despite being distracted with moving the flags and the changing of the guard. Big kudos to all involved!!!

Then on Sunday morning patrol 3 rescued a child and two females using boards and tubes. These holidaymakers were in trouble and were 100 meters outside the red and yellow flags, with members of the public also signalling to patrol members.  Thanks to our fast-acting bronzies, and Ben C who was there with his family, grabbing a board to assist.

There was more action for the afternoon patrol, with a call out at 5pm for an IRB to rescue two males snorkelling off point Arkwright. The IRB and waverunner combined to take the patients to the beach where they were assessed in good condition, it seemed they just got nervous as they were about 100m off the rocks. Great work from Patrol 4 performing this end-of-patrol rescue.