Tragedy strikes Teahupoo ahead of Paris 2024 games after Australian surf photographer pulled unconscious from water

"As soon as you think you have Mother Ocean all figured out, she will quickly humble you and remind you that you are at her mercy entirely.”

Dramatic scenes from Teahupoo yesterday afternoon after a teenage Australian surf photographer was pulled from the water unconscious in heavy eight-foot surf. 

The Santa Cruz photographer Ryan Craig and local bodyboarder Angelo Fararie dragged Australian Byron Mcloughlin from the water after he floated by the pair face down.

Nineeten-year-old Mclouhglin, who was shooting the action from an inflatable bodyboard, had been sucked over the falls on an earlier set and had ended up in the lagoon. The former tour surfer Michel Bourez went in to pick him up and brought him back to the channel. 

He went back into the lineup to shoot and thirty minutes later was found face down during a lull. When Mcloughlin was flipped over his lips were blue and he was foaming at the mouth. 

He was rushed to hospital where he was put into an induced coma.

It isn’t the Australian’s first brush with disaster in the surf.

Two years ago, Mcloughlin describes nearly drowning at Padang Padang in Bali after a marathon six-hour shoot.

“I knew I was in trouble I still had no local knowledge of this place as it was my first time here. It was getting darker and darker and I decided to scream out for help,” he told The Inertia.

The story continues:

Two South African surfers came to his aid,  paddling while he held onto their surfboard leashes. But with no fins on his feet to help with kicking and a heavy camera housing, McLoughlin felt like he was making them tow dead weight. He was tired, it was dark, and two strangers were risking their lives to make sure he wouldn’t be in danger. McLoughlin admits at this point he thought the worst might happen and he considered dropping his camera, but the group came up with another plan instead. One surfer paddled in to get help while the other waited with him. Almost an hour later they saw lights and heard whistles.

“We just waited for the tide to go back up a bit and then with quick thinking the guy decided to take my camera, give me his board to lie down on, and catch a wave in while he left his board leash on his leg,” he describes. “It was basically a tandem wave.”

He adds, “I remember panicking a lot, telling them both, we need to call for proper help — police, ambulance etc. But they kept reminding me where I was — Padang Padang — everything is on a cliff here. No one can get a boat or a jet ski down here.”

They finally made it back with a battered camera, a handful of reef cuts, and some valuable reminders for McLoughlin.

“Your mindset in that situation and your ability to stay calm and collected as the beatings and hold-downs keep coming and coming…that will determine whether or not you become a statistic or simply have a harrowing story to tell the guys later on,” he says. “As soon as you think you have Mother Ocean all figured out, she will quickly humble you and remind you that you are at her mercy entirely.”

 

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