Surf Life Saving's day of shame transcript
Go to story details, link to the Coroner's report and the video.
Glen Holland: Nobody should die in this sport.This is not a sport where people should be dying.
Dana Bird: I'm always thinking about him. Every night, every day, just constantly. Every time I drive so much so that at times I've accidentally set a place for him at dinner. Yeah, there's just times that I just forget that he's not here. It was raining. It was really windy. It was cold. It was just coming from everywhere and I kept thinking, "Perhaps it will get better, perhaps it'll get better."
Jim Keogh: The surf was quite extreme. It was breaking right to the outer bank.
Patrick Nicol: We all got there and saw the surf and were going, "Yeah, this is going to be "an interesting, interesting Australian titles this year" because, I mean, the surf was unbelievably big.
ROBERT OVADIA: March 2010, wild surf, fuelled by a cyclone in the Coral Sea, crashes into the final days of the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships. The cost could not have been higher as Surf Life Saving Australia let down one of its own.
Dana Bird: As I said to the detective that night, Surf Lifesaving killed Saxon. And I'll never forgive them for it, ever.
Happy birthday dear Saxon. #
Happy birthday to you. #
ROBERT OVADIA: Saxon Bird on his 18th birthday just over a year before the championships.
Dana Bird: He was just too good to be true, very sweet. Perfect son.
ROBERT OVADIA: When he was nine, Saxon began his surf lifesaving career
and quickly he found success.
Phil Bird: From the moment he was born he was always in the water and it was just natural for him to go well in surf lifesaving. He loved the training with his friends, he loved the water, he loved the surf. He lived and breathed it.
Patrick Nicol: He was one of the best Iron Men in our age groups and it was a real honour to race with Saxon.
ROBERT OVADIA: Patrick Nicol was one of Saxon's best mates. Though they raced for different clubs on Sydney's northern beaches, they often trained together - up to six times a week - for the Australian championships.
Patrick Nicol: I mean, it is the Australian titles. It's the last event of the year, it's the biggest event of year. I mean, there was a bit of a rivalry - you are going for a medal. But at the same time we were all
mates, we're all best friends.
ROBERT OVADIA: On 16 March last year, 8,000 athletes, including Saxon,
began arriving at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast for the week-long championships. Very quickly the wild surf causes mayhem. By day two, Wednesday, officials are already fielding questions about the danger to competitors from the worsening conditions.
Grant Baldrock: Obviously throughout tomorrow, Friday and Saturday are probably the days that it does, that it is predicted that the swell will increase in size and the conditions will worsen. However, we continue to monitor it as we go forward.
ROBERT OVADIA: Time after time...
Grant Baldrock: The safety to our competitors and officials is paramount
and we're going to continue to monitor the conditions.
ROBERT OVADIA: And over the following days...
Grant Baldrock: Safety of our competitors and officials is the most important aspect. We want to make sure that the safety of our members is paramount. And we'll continue to monitor it as the conditions change.
ROBERT OVADIA: The mantra never changed.
Grant Baldrock: I want to emphasise that safety of our members is paramount. We're continuing to monitor the conditions and we're confident we'll still be at Kurrawa tomorrow. We'll continue to monitor the situation.
ROBERT OVADIA: Surf Life Saving Australia has a lot riding on the championships. It's their showpiece — marquees, grandstands, television coverage and millions in sponsorship all centred around the annual event
being held at Kurrawa beach. And on the beach, on the Thursday, conditions were even worse. But the official message remained the same.
Grant Baldrock: We need to understand that safety of our members is paramount and our athletes and we'll continue to monitor the situation.
Glen Holland: If safety was paramount and you or any normal person was standing on that beach, and saw some of the things that were going on in the surf itself, you would say, "What are these people doing?" "This is crazy."
ROBERT OVADIA: Glen Holland, a boat sweep and 38-year veteran of surf lifesaving remembers one race in particular on the Thursday.
Glen Holland: I saw two boats go over the top of one another and like, cut each other in half. I just froze and I looked out at the water, thinking, "Oh, my God, are they all going to come up?" 'Cause they were moving at such great pace it was like, oh, you know, you could almost feel death.
ROBERT OVADIA: So incensed was he and others about the danger to competitors that late Thursday morning the boat crews staged a mutiny,
demanding their event be moved to a safer location.
Glen Holland: We'd been training all year to do this. We don't expect to go out there in cyclonic conditions and this is cyclonic conditions. We don't train - no-one trains in cyclonic conditions But presently now this is un-runnable for all crews.
ROBERT OVADIA: Also at the protest meeting was Midget Farrelly, a former world surfing champion and a competitor in the boat event.
ROBERT OVADIA: How unusual is it to refuse to race?
Midget Farrelly: It's very unusual. If you are working with the organisers generally there will be a consensus at the end of whatever meeting you had with them that OK, we agree that racing should be stopped for the day. This was different. This was like, "You will race at any cost."
Glen Holland: There was stretchers coming down to the beach, guys were getting carted off. Injuries, the amount of injuries we saw in that first part of the day you wouldn't see in a whole year, you wouldn't see in two years or three years.
ROBERT OVADIA: Meanwhile...
Grant Baldrock: I want to emphasise that safety of our competitors is paramount and also those injuries are not uncommon for an event of this size.
ROBERT OVADIA: Surf Life Saving Australia knew the dangers of pressing on. In the 1996 Australian championships 15-year-old Robert Gatenby drowned on the same beach in cyclonic surf. Senior official Grant Baldock is even reminded of the tragedy at a press conference.
Grant Baldrock: Obviously we learnt a lot of lessons out of that experience.
Dana Bird: And the strangest thing is I actually asked Saxon who Robert Gatenby was the day before. As we were walking past the surf club,
there's a memorial to him.
ROBERT OVADIA: The next morning, when Saxon and his parents arrived at Kurrawa, conditions had gone from extreme to terrifying.
Dana Bird: We were actually down on the beach at 6:00 in the morning.
Saxon, Phil and I, we could all see it was so much bigger that I can't understand that the officials didn't realise it had gotten so much bigger or just didn't want to admit to the fact that it had got bigger.
ROBERT OVADIA: But they kept telling the media that safety of the competitors was paramount.
Phil Bird: It was never paramount. If it was - if safety was paramount
why didn't they move it?
ROBERT OVADIA: Well, some would say this is Iron Man - it's supposed to test the toughest.
Phil Bird: It's a tough sport, yes, and that's what the challenge is all about but there's a difference between tough and stupidity.
ROBERT OVADIA: Just after 7am, racing started for the day. On the beach, Saxon and his mate Patrick watched on.
Patrick Nicol: We were watching the best of the best, like the ones that do compete in the Nutri-Grain which is the top of the range people and they were getting absolutely hammered out there in that surf. You sort of look at them and go "Well, what chance have I got if that's what's happening to them?"
Phil Bird: It's supposed to be racing, not survival.
Patrick Nicol: You and Dana were arguing, weren't you?
Dana, you wanted Phil to try to get them to stop it.
Dana Bird: I was, wasn't I? I kept saying to Phil, "Please try and stop the race.” "Please try and - go down and make them stop the race."
ROBERT OVADIA: Then Surf life Saving receives its biggest wake-up call of all. The Gold Coast's top-ranking policeman is so worried about the danger he demands an urgent meeting with top officials.
Jim Keogh: I expressed to them in no uncertain terms that I was very concerned about the safety of the competitors taking part in this event.
ROBERT OVADIA: At 9:55 Superintendent Jim Keogh, himself an experienced lifesaver, lays down the law to the carnival committee.
Jim Keogh: I wanted them to take notice of what was happening around them and consider all their options. I made specific mention of the Coroner and indicated to them that should there be a death that's where
we would be destined for - the Coroner's Court, where the decision-making process by the organisation of Surf Life Saving would be questioned.
ROBERT OVADIA: But racing continued and Saxon was worried.
Dana Bird: He was really, just so nervous. He kept saying to me,
"You don't understand how hard it is, you don't understand. "It's so rough and so dangerous."
ROBERT OVADIA: Just before 11am, officials were warned again. This time by Australia's top Iron Man, Shannon Eckstein, who was approached by the Chairman of the Committee.
Shannon Eckstein Dave Thompson from Surf Life Saving come and saw me
under the North Cliff tent and asked about the conditions. I told him what I told the official earlier, that it was at the top end of my range. It was pretty dangerous out there and from what I've seen from the forecast, that it was probably only going to get bigger.
Phil Bird: They ignored Shannon, they ignored everybody who was telling them that things were dangerous and that there was people were going to get hurt.
ROBERT OVADIA: On the beach it is now a matter of minutes before Saxon's race is due to start.
Jim Keogh: If it would have been postponed or actually cancelled they would have talked about it for a couple of weeks and it would have been forgotten. But here, the events of Friday the 19th will never be forgotten.
ROBERT OVADIA: Just before Saxon gets into the water you made a phone call to your mum.
Dana Bird: Yeah to say a prayer to keep him safe. I rang Mum and told her he was going in the water and to start praying 'cause I was worried.
And then I had to ring and tell her that he was missing.
ROBERT OVADIA: At approximately 11:05, Saxon's race began. A wave pounded a competitor in front of him. He toppled and his ski became a torpedo, smashing into Saxon's head.
Dana Bird: And then he went under the water and I kept thinking,
"Where is he? Where is he?" And I kept looking and I was.....I told the official from the opens area, I tried, and I'm going, "Saxon's missing,
Saxon's missing, please." And this man said, "Get out of the official area "or you'll - the competitor will be disqualified."
Dana Bird: And I said, "There's a competitor missing." And he said,
"He's probably up the beach." And I said "No, he hasn't surfaced."
Patrick Nicol: I just remember turning left and right and everyone, just the same, everyone - towels were off, everyone was in the water. Everyone ran down, swimming in the water, trying to find him.
ROBERT OVADIA: The cream of Australian life saving race in to save Saxon. But then, an extraordinary decision. During the most critical time for a rescue, officials order them back out of the water.
Official: I want them out of the water clear. Tell those swimmers I want them out of the water.
Dana Bird: That rescue was just dumber and dumber. They just - Saxon had no hope. It was just all white water, Saxon was on the bottom - how could they find him? It was impossible. If the swimmers had been allowed
to stay in the water - and all those boys wanted to find him.
Patrick Nicol They weren't going to find him racing around on jet skis and stuff. It's a body, he's full of water, he's under the water by now.
He's sunk, the waves have pushed him to the bottom - I mean, where there's swimming, with our feet, kicking to the bottom, trying to feel -
they can't feel on a jet ski.
Phil Bird: They called us all out of the water and at that stage there,
I knew that, um... ..he, um, he wasn't going to make it.
Dana Bird: I just knew, I just knew. If they'd have left the swimmers in there, possibly he would have been found. I don't know.
ROBERT OVADIA: Some 50 minutes after they were ordered out, lifesavers were let back into the water and only then was Saxon found. It was 12:22. While he'd been missing, Surf Life Saving had taken its swiftest action of the day - to silence competitors and staff.
Official: Turn the camera off and move away, please.
ROBERT OVADIA: Have you heard that before Saxon was even found, people were being told not to speak to the media?
Dana Bird: Yeah, we did know.
Phil Bird: The competitors had been told not to speak to the media, the officials had been told not to speak to the media.
ROBERT OVADIA: And Saxon hadn't even been found at that stage?
Dana Bird: No, all officials - there was a group of officials actually taken to a tent and given lunch while Saxon was missing.
ROBERT OVADIA: Despite frantic efforts, Saxon never regained consciousness.
At 1:15pm, Saxon Bird was pronounced dead. The competition was finally suspended.
ANNOUNCER: Nobody is to enter the water today.
Dana Bird: Saxon's mum collapsed and was taken to hospital.
Phil Bird: You just...you just go into shock. You just can't comprehend it.
ROBERT OVADIA: A week later, Saxon was buried. Five days before his funeral, Surf Life Saving Australia held a debrief for senior officials.
These are the minutes:
ROBERT OVADIA: There is not one mention of Saxon Bird. Publicly,
Surf Live Saving Australia was supportive of Saxon's family and friends.
Brett Williamson: There's a lot of activity behind the scenes with comforting and communicating so there's our welfare of our people - we are an extended family so our primary concern is we get through that
and obviously our primary thoughts are with the family themselves.
ROBERT OVADIA: Privately, the real activity was to hire a PR firm to manage their compassion. This was a memo that was forwarded to clubs the day after. I want you both to read that, please.
In the memo, there are two suggested and responses - one in the event
of a negative inquiry.
And one in the event of positive enquiry. "We will continue to support
Saxon's family," it says. (SCOFFS)
ROBERT OVADIA: Is that true?
Dana Bird: No!
ROBERT OVADIA: Do you find they've supported you?
Dana Bird: Not at all! Anything but. And if anyone thinks they've
supported us right from the start - our own surf club has and they're wonderful and I have nothing... ..I only have wonderful things to say about all the people there. But as far as Surf Life Saving Australia, nothing. Zero.
Phil Bird: They're there to protect the brand of Surf Life Saving.
It's not trying to look at protecting the actual competitors.
ROBERT OVADIA: 42 days ago, we asked Surf Life Saving Australia
for an interview with its CEO, Brett Williamson. A time and a place was agreed, then they pulled out. We asked Mr Williamson again and he declined. We asked a third time and he refused. But we set up for the interview anyway in the hope of a change of heart. The coroner would subsequently find that the only responsible thing for officials to do
the day Saxon Bird died was to suspend competition. Dana Bird says
Surf Life Saving's failure to do so caused her son's death.
Dana Bird: Life Saving managed to kill Saxon and then not even an "I'm sorry."
ROBERT OVADIA: Do you think it would be an admission of guilt if they were to say sorry?
Dana Bird: I suppose it is an admission of guilt but it's just the right thing to do.
Patrick Nicol So while we're here, here's to Saxon - a great bloke and a great friend. Cheers.
ROBERT OVADIA: Saxon would have turned 21 in November.
ROBERT OVADIA: In the early mornings, on the waves his son once ruled as an ironman, Phillip Bird is out there.
Phil Bird: It's the only way I can stop just feeling down all the time,
is to get out there and be in the water and having - using his board
and wearing his vest just makes it feel like he's still with me there.
Yeah, in just a little way at least. That he's still.. ..he's still part of us.
Dana Bird: We've left everything of Saxon's just the way it was. His room's the same, his clothes are all there, everything's the same. The only thing that's missing is him.
