Teens hailed as heroes after saving floating man
Two teenagers are being hailed as heroes after they saved a man from drowning at a Rye beach.
The man had fallen off his jet ski and had been in the water for more than an hour.
Tom Gozel met the boys on Thursday with a gift, a small gesture of thanks, but he said nothing could truly express the gratitude he felt.
Thirteen year-olds Ed Fuggle and Ben Brunton rescued him on Australia Day.
The young sailors were out on the water when they spotted something.
“He was floating on his back in the water. We didn’t see him at the start but we could hear him yelling for help,” Ben said.
A wave threw Mr Gozel off his jet ski and 30-knot winds quickly pushed it away, leaving him threading water for an hour and a half as he drifted further from shore.
“He jump in the water, he come hold my hand and said ‘relax,’” said Mr Gozel.
He was exhausted and suffering hypothermia when the boys found him.
“We just started chatting about what happened and just tried to keep his mind off it,” Ed said.
The boys then came up with a plan to get the attention of a rescue boat, capsizing their own boat to get its attention.
“As soon as that happened, I knew…that they wanted me over there or they needed me over there, one or the other,” Bob Cooper from Rye Yacht Club said.
“It was a really good decision on their behalf.”
Ed and Ben had been sailing for around an hour and were just about to head back to shore when they heard Tom’s screams.
Despite the strong winds they stayed on the water to get help.
“It could have been a completely different story if we hadn’t got there earlier than what we did,” Ed said.
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