Two Cape surf-skiers safe after dramatic four-hour sea rescue

In a dramatic rescue operation that challenged the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) to the limit, it took four hours to save two surf-skiers off a double surf-ski. 

The surfers were practising their extreme sport in intense weather conditions when they found themselves in trouble on Thursday.

NSRI Simon's Town duty coxswain Andrew de Kock said they received a call from a resident who reported seeing what they believed to be a surf-skier battling in bad weather about 200m offshore of Froggy Pond, between Simon's Town and Millers Point. 

“Our NSRI Simon's Town duty crew were activated to respond from our rescue base. Our NSRI Simon's Town coast watchers were alerted, and they immediately began to scan the area to get eyes on the paddler,” he said. 

“Our EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) had been monitoring a group of surf-skiers using our NSRI SafeTrx console. They appeared to be on a reverse Millers downwind run, paddling the approximately six nautical miles, from Fish Hoek to Millers Point.” 

At the same time as the resident’s call came through, the EOC received an emergency activation on the SafeTrx from the paddlers who had hit the help button on their phone, confirming that there were two of them on a double surf ski and they urgently needed rescuing. 

The one paddler was on top of the surf ski but the other had fallen off, was unable to get back up and was now in the sea hanging onto the back of the ski board.

The crew launched a sea rescue craft, the Donna Nicholas. At the same time another rescue craft in Simon's Town, Jack&Irene, was preparing for launch. 

“Making best use of the following sea currents and winds, we made good progress on the Donna Nicholas towards the scene using our on-board iPad (which has access to the SafeTrx console) to guide our rescue craft directly to the two men,” De Kock said. 

They arrived on the scene just offshore of Fisherman’s Beach, where conditions were poor with fading light, gusting gale-force northwesterly winds (that strengthened in intensity and changed direction to north-easterly during the operation) and whipping, blinding sea spray. 

“One man was still on board the surf-ski and the other man was in the water holding onto the surf-ski and he appeared to be severely hypothermic. They had discarded one of their paddles and used the other to signal their position towards our approaching rescue craft,” said De Kock. 

“We circled the two men to approach them from an upwind direction, but, looking at the severity of the situation and the obvious challenges we faced, it was immediately decided to activate our rigid hull inflatable boat, the NSRI rescue craft Jack&Irene, to come and assist us in what was clearly going to be a challenging operation to rescue these two men.” 

Cape Medical Response was also activated to dispatch an ambulance and advanced life support paramedics to stand by at the Simon's Town rescue base. 

“The first attempted approach to the casualties resulted in our rescue craft being blown a fair distance off, so we circled them a second time and, despite the weather challenges, we managed to position the rescue craft 10 to 15m from the two men and two NSRI rescue swimmers were deployed into the water and were able to reach and secure both casualties.” 

The first man, who was severely hypothermic, was pulled to the stern by one of the rescue swimmers and was pulled towards the deck by safety rope with the help of the deck crew. Another two rescue swimmers helped him to the aft platform from where he was heaved onto deck by the crew as he was unable to help himself. He was taken into the wheelhouse where rewarming treatment was initiated. 

After the first successful rescue two rescue swimmers were able to pull the man on the surf-ski to the rescue boat where he was also hauled on-board and also given rewarming treatment. 

On return to shore both men were treated by paramedics and after being rewarmed they were both in good spirits and good health. They were collected by their fellow paddlers. 

The surf-skiers, both local adult males and highly experienced extreme sport surf-skiers, were commended for making use of the NSRI SafeTrx app on their phones, while participating in this extreme sport activity. The local resident who also raised the alarm was also commended for their vigilance and swift action. 

The crew did their debriefing, washed down the rescue craft and base and closed up at 8.50pm — four hours and five minutes after the first alarm was raised. 

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