A drowning tragedy was narrowly averted last Thursday at the notorious New Brighton beach after a young surfer managed to pluck a woman in her 20s from rough conditions.
Resident Jason Milham told Echonetdaily that he ran back to grab his boogie board after he saw the woman in trouble. ‘It was pretty rough – around four to five feet.’ He said that as he had been surfing there the previous day, he knew where to find the rip.
‘It was the same rip that she got taken out in,’ he said. After he reached the woman, he said she was quite calm even though she said she couldn’t paddle any more. ‘We talked about other things as we paddled in.’
As for warning signs, he said many have fallen into the dunes or washed away after recent storm events.
‘There’s always a big rip there and it can be very dangerous,’ he said.
Resident Roma Boulton told Echonetdaily that ‘Jason risked his life and saved hers! It is really distressing that I have already witnessed a dead body at New Brighton beach and Thursday it nearly happened again.’
