Mad Huey principals help in mass rescue; furious at lack of help from other surfers.
Yesterday, the famous, infamous, whatever you wanna call ’em, Harrington Twins, were all over Australian newspapers after helping to save seven of eight drowning swimmers at D-bah on Christmas Day – and then lighting up Instagram in disgust at other surfers.
A couple of headlines:
“Twins fire up at surfers for not helping drowning man!”
“Surfers ‘watched man drown'”
Shaun and Dean Harrington, who are thirty years old, and whom you might know from the Mad Hueys, wrote:
To all those surfers yesterday at D’bah who watched two lifeguards me and my family save 6 people and one drowned FUCK YOU if you see someone in trouble you HELP THEM and that kite boarder who nearly ran me over twice when I had an unconscious man in my arms you can get fucked, some poor family has lost a life because people were standing around watching and doing fuck all, it’s fucking bullshit!!
The swimmer, an Indian national, Ravneet Singh Gill, who was twenty-two and a biz student at Southern Cross Uni, was brought to the beach but was unable to be revived.
Pertinent comments on the post:
- conorh78 Too many cunts waiting on the mag spread from invisible photographers! Surf the sea to know nature otherwise enjoy your life after 25/30 when the sponsors dry up!
- picca00 Fucking bullshit @hazza_twins that people just stand around and watch shit happen, same shit happens here in NY, but worse, they got to try and film it all… after I’m healed up Ill head your way and fuck some guys up if ya need.. good job on getting out there and doing what you could..
- billiams85 Dealt with the same situation years ago on the Sunshine Coast, girl drowning underwater, paddled past several other surfers just sitting there watching. Pulled her out and not one other surfer helped me get her to shore. She left the beach all good no thanks to them. Couldn’t believe the level of care factor!
And, as one wise follower wrote: “The world is full of cunts the trick is to not be one yourself.”
Happy Christmas, New Year etc.
Surfers are selfish pricks…who woulda thought.
I’m a cunt but not this much of a cunt.
Australians…..
are some of the best people in the world….and two of em came to the help of the victim and did the best they could.
ask about this “best people” to the aborigen people…
Don’t be so sure, there were plenty of your fellow country men floating about at the time. It was Australians doing the rescue, it was Australia that sent Rescue Boats,jet ski, 10 ambulances, 8 police cars, fire truck, 3 van loads of volunteer rescue workers, and it was Australians left in tears on the beach at the death of a stranger on Christmas Day. What an absolute kook you are. Perhaps an apology is in order?
Me? i’m just a biased brazzo. Ask the Hazza Twins to apologize about their misunderstanding…
I seriously doubt there was a single Australian citizen out surfing at the time and the Harrington’s who are Australian risked their lives to swim out and rescue these guys so you are completely misinformed.
Plenty of fckwits surf up the goldy. Most snaking and selfish line up you will ever surf is dbah and snapper. They probably saw it as an opportunity to get a few more waves.
There was no surf. It was all kooky tourists out. I surf dbah and snapper 99% of my surfs, no dramas at all. There’s more fuckwits at small town beaches in my opinion.
That’s fucked!
Shouldn’t the drowning victim be referred to as “the non-swimmer”? If he were a “swimmer” he would still be alive.
About a year ago was surfing the local shit beachie after a long day of being dragged through Ikea by the missus. It was 2 foot onshore rubbish and 5pm but needed to get in the water. Saw a guy who was in trouble kinda. Didn’t want to go over but did anyway just to see if he was ok. Got closer and the did had slit his throat and stabbed himself in the chest 3 times. Was the most terrifying and disturbing thing I have ever seen. He was alive but barely and gasping and blue. Luckily the last lifeguard was still packing up and saw me wave to him. We eventually dragged the big guy in and did what we could till the ambos came. Heaps of people standing around. No one offering to get a towel or anything while we try to cover the holes. next thing you know the fucken news was jamming a camera in my face trying to get a story while I still had blood on me. Basically people are shit, but I guess we already worked that out.
Fuuuuuuck. What happened to him?
Mate who is a lifeguard said they had big meeting about it and he lived apparently.
We had a guy going bad at polihale one time and I was not about to save him. I told him the current was fucked but he decided to paddle out anyway. 25 minutes after fighting an outgoing rip and getting fucked on the inside my EMT brother in law grabbed my 9’0 and somehow got right out to him. He was so embarrassed that he didn’t even thank him. I would of let him drown but I’m an evil cunt.
This has this happen to me more than once. The worst was about 5 years ago at canngu. Perfect day at the sand bar, more then 40 guys out. A Euro swimmer and his wife got washed out in the rip. Spent 20mins helping him to shore, thankfully she was a strong swimmer and followed along beside us. Not one person helped, even when asked directly.
How about this: a group of clubbies were board paddle training and six of em…six… paddled straight past a swimmer in distress. My eight-year-old kid got him to hold onto his foamie until I swam out. When I told em about it, they said they’d already rescued one person that day. Which reminds me of the song…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Seems like an all to familiar story.
How good is that song but, being a council worker myself I’m generally on smoko for 8 hours a day.
ha ha epic as long as can surf on smoko
9 day fortnight and 8 weeks holidays a year, I use my smoko to catch up on sleep and recover from various injuries.
I’m in the wrong job!!!
Don’t get me started on some clubbies – I know Nick advocates for em – but some are that fucked that they spend all day on the quad bikes and could not swim to save their own life!! flags in wrong spot etc etc
Its a general awareness thing and looking out for people – its not that hard
There’s good surf clubs and fucking shit surf clubs. Coolum Surf Club is pretty fucked up.
Could expand but summary would be “The money always flows up, you know that”
Is that you Fraser? Has your mother-in-law left yet?
You’ve lost me Julian-Fraser
Those fucking tools at Coolum Surf Club fucking around with surf boats and all the other boy’s toys, wasting millions on other pointless crap unrelated to saving lives. Donation? Nah, not right now thanks
Put more actual lifeguards on the beach, and be less concerned with your parking space
Sorry, one of the blokes I surf with there was born in Scotland and even has some tartan boardies. Thought ‘Jocks’ may have been his nom de plume.
He enjoys testing the clubbies patience and is currently in a blood feud with Keith Urban’s brother re: almost getting run over by a surf boat. It’s a factionalised club and some from within have hinted they wouldn’t mind if K Urban’s bro was kicked out. Fraser also has his name in the council ‘dog book’ after paddling from the beach around to the bays and back a few times to avoid the clubbies after surfing through the flags a few times. They called the council, who sent out the dog impound guy, who couldn’t do anything either. Except write his name in the ‘dog book’ of course.
His mother-in-law is a renowned wave killer. There will be no swell while she camps at his place. Was hoping she had moved on….
I hope your mate’s mother-in-law leaves soon, but a pretty good December all up for surf yes?
That Tuesday arvo after the storm went over? Best surf for 30 years that I can remember, (taking into account 15 years spent elsewhere).
That arvo was pretty epic
or this , would have been 35 years ago at Phillip Island , I got out of the water just after the final , it’s about 5.15 pm , one of the judges points out to me a guy lying on his surfboard , out to sea with his hand in the air. I go , call the clubbies , they already had told the crew it was after 5.00pm….so I paddled out , the guy was completely fucked , and actually saved him , no big deal except for the clubbies…but it was a long time ago……but I still marvel at the Judge who came up to me , why not someone else, ah maybe its human nature!!
Don’t worry about the upcoming article…..it’s now expanded ….and coming along , but not nicely , fuck there are a lot of different tangents that have brought surfing to its knees , and while we are down there , going to need more thana prayer , need to tear down/chaos and rebuild…coming soon!
Shit no! My young bloke stumbled across this clip yesterday…bit of an ear worm, classic!
The drummer is teaching my young pup to drum. He’s also a shit hot skateboarder. But for mine his life highlight was getting expelled from a local school for swiping the gardeners golf buggy and leading him on a merry chase one lunch time. Legend.
In defence of Surfers, also at Caangu, also about 5 yrs ago. South African guy got caught in a rip and essentially drowned. A group of about 6-8 of us formed a raft, tried [futile] CPR in the water, wrapped him on my back with leggies, surfed the body to the beach then did CPR for ?20min to no avail. All in front of his fiancee. BUT, everyone pulled their weight and came to his rescue as best they could. Pity the outcome didn’t reflect the effort.
This happened to my missus a couple of months ago, and she’s pretty much a beginner. Left on her own trying to paddle two guys in by herself.
They were dead on. Fuck anyone that saw this happening and didn’t help. I just redid my CPR certification and want to do a rescue swimming course soon as well. Everyone should at the very least know CPR.
I haven’t done CPR training for 30+ years so yeah I should get a refresher. Good call.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Good pull – CPR is different than it was 30 years ago, but really pretty easy
but don’t forget the breaths for drowning victims folks
Man people suck, you could see someone bleeding out in the street and you’d have 10 fuckers filming it before one person tries to help.
Yeah that is fucked if sat and watched – but from experience maybe they scared to help!!! People feel liable etc if something goes wrong – so basically do nothing.
I think it’s less a fear of liability and more an inertia that infects most people – as if it’s happening on a screen in front of ’em and they’re powerless to intervene…
It’s just that they don’t know what to do. Most surfers aren’t really very good in the water and have little awareness of what’s happening around them, especially if it’s something out of the ordinary – they’re mostly just busy trying to manage what they’re doing. If you’re a pretty good surfer, you really wanna make the effort to skill up in rescue techniques, CPR etc, so you have the confidence to take charge in a situation like this. Other people will pitch in to help, if they see you’ve got a grip and you ask for their assistance. ai know this is very non post ironic BG style posting but I tell ya what, if somebody dies in the surf and you could have helped if you’d known how, it’s not gonna feel too post ironic.
Check this program that was run in WA the past couple of months
http://www.surfersrescue365…
Yeah I know 365, it’s a good program. It’s not a full kit of skills but it doesn’t have to be. We’re only really helping someone get through the time it takes for professionals to arrive. Surf rescue is first aid basically: you’re protecting the person, getting them out of danger, and making sure things don’t get worse. The key piece of gear in a critical rescue is a phone and someone able to call 000/911.
And 112! Don’t forget the Euros, Nick, for pity’s sake.
Valuable info for all! 112 works as an emergency number ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
Maybe don’t try that in Western Sahara. Then again, try not to need an emergency number in Western Sahara. But in general, yes!
I think maybe don’t actually go to Western Sahara.
Recently completed the Surfers 365 Through Surfing WA down here on the South Coast. As Nick Said its very basic But the take away gold nuggets were the techniques for getting people onto your board easily and effectively. As surfers we are the first responders and I think most surfers have a story or ten about saving some souls life, we had one this morning and got to put new skills to the test. Very worth while initiative, techniques I could have used a few times before, making things easier, had I known them. The more of us that know these skills the better and its basic, basic stuff, casualty on board management and CPR, but that will save a life.
As for the fucktards that held back and watched, I understand they may not have know what to do, but to do nothing !?!
We need to look out for each other, be great for the surf media to spread some skills. Love ya work.
How about we team up and make a lil BeachGrit TV ep, you showing how to roll a swimmer onto your board, CPR etc.
Great idea
After years of proscratinating got my CPR and First Aid in 2013 for the reason Nick pointed out. If you’re not a cunt you’re gonna feel shit on the beach standing over an unconscious person waiting for the ambulance to turn up
Ah I’ve already mapped out a series for CW. Coming in Jan.
You’ve hit nail on head. I was sadly down there having a Christmas picnic with my family but wasn’t in water and had no boards. The waves were as bad as it gets, 1 foot howling northerlies and the caliber of surfers matched the conditions. I said to my wife “he’d be alive if the waves were good” because there would have been a hundred guys capable of pulling them out of water. Big respect to those that pulled them out, the rip they were in was wide and strong, they genuinely risked their lives. Dbah is not a Beach to swim at and in fairness to the authorities there were no swimming signs up and down the sand. Those that did assist gave it their all, at least 30 minutes of cpr, very helpless feeling watching something like that go down and seeing them realise there is nothing more they can do.
Agree. Most surfers paddle out 100 metres max on their life preserver and paddle back in.
How the f&ck would you get an 80 kilo drowning man back to shore on a 6’2?
It’s pretty easy actually, once you’ve learned and practiced it.
It’s most important to get your board to the victim, enabling him to keep his head above the water. Keep the flotation between yourself and the conscious victim with both of you holding onto the board.
Both Surfing NSW and now Surfing Victoria run free CPR and surf rescue courses for surfers, and there’s a woman at SCU who is studying how often surfers save lives (a lot) so there is some good amongst the bad.
Agreed, when this occurs strong leadership is required to snap them out of it and engage them in the process.
Absolutely. Hats off to the Harrington fellas, but did they ask for help directly? Most people go full “deer in headlights” unless they’re given a kick up the arse.
I really like the idea of casting blame on the inertia. They infect.
From a legal point of view the general public has no obligation to assist. On the other hand people who do assist expose themselves to potential damages claims. Great system hey.
No they really don’t. If you assist to the reasonable length of your abilities, you won’t be held liable for any damages. The law doesn’t expect miracles from people.
That’s a very basic black and white view you have. If only the law was so reasonable.