Surfing students save young girls in Merimbula

Debora Miller was having an enjoyable afternoon swim at Short Point, Merimbula, with her four daughters on Monday, February 29, when suddenly everything took a turn for the worse.  

Her husband, who usually swims with them had decided to walk along the rocks and her eldest daughter, only 14-years-old, turned to go for a stroll along the beach in the opposite direction. 

In the short amount of time it took for Ms Miller to check on her eldest daughter and her husband, her three other daughters, aged 11, nine and eight, drifted away.

They got caught in a rip and were heading towards the rocks on the south end of the beach. 

“My husband couldn’t dive in off the rocks and they were too far away for me to get to them,” Ms Miller said. “My husband started calling out to them trying to coach them out of danger. I could see their heads pop up between the waves and could see them starting to panic.” 

It was then that the three surfers, Kai Brown and Tom Dwyer, 16, and Mitch Blaxter, 17, noticed something was wrong. 

“We could see their mum and dad were worried and were yelling out but couldn’t get to the girls,” Mitch said. 

“We knew they were in trouble so we decided to go over and help.”

All three boys turned their boards towards the girls and paddled over. When they got there they jumped off their boards and pulled the girls on to them. They then brought the girls into shore. 

“They just made sure the girls were okay and went back to surfing, they didn’t look for any credit. I was panicked and crying and I didn’t get the chance to thank them,” Ms Miller said.

“I try not to think too much about what ifs but if they hadn’t been there, there was nothing my husband or I could do. I owe them so much, what do you give to the people who saved three of your daughters lives?

“They really were my heroes that day.”

The boys said they knew what to do thanks to their school’s surf rescue class.