WHEN Victorian Scott Arbuthnot was saved by two lifeguards off Sawtell Beach back in 1980, he was 15-years-old and sorely embarrassed that he had got himself into such a dangerous predicament.
Once safely on dry sand, he simply walked off, angry with the younger brother he had gone in to help and angry with himself.
The unsaid “thank you” stayed with Scott for 46 years, until he drove into Sawtell in March to make amends.
“It was great to meet some of the members of Sawtell Surf Life Saving Club and chat about my experience all those years ago,” he told News Of The Area.
“It’s stuck with me… I was so angry with myself that I’d made such an incredibly stupid decision to swim against a rip.”
While the family lived on a dairy farm in Sale, Victoria, Scott was a member of a swimming club and knew pool rules well, but less so the dangers of the ocean.
“We now see it as a routine part of summer – visitors from the country or overseas getting into difficulties in the ocean rips – but that doesn’t make me feel any less embarrassed.”
The incident played out on the Arbuthnot family’s school holiday trip along the Coffs Coast.
“On one of the warmer days, we all went in for a swim at the beach but found a strong cross current, the sort that you would struggle to walk against if it got much above your knees,” Scott said.
“We decided to move down the beach towards the flags, but my 13-year-old younger brother instead ran straight in and quickly found himself in the rip at the end of those cross currents.
“I was 15 at the time, in a swimming club and quite a strong swimmer, but I really didn’t understand the surf at all.
“So, I did exactly the wrong thing and chased after him.”
Their father also started to go in but sensibly thought the better of it and pulled out.
“Mum, who must have been having visions of all the males in the family heading for Hawaii, was the only one to do the right thing and ran for the lifeguards.”
Scott had caught up with his brother, who by this time was panicking, so he made the fateful decision to try to get them both back by swimming against the rip.
“Not a winning strategy,” he said.
“Thankfully before we could tire ourselves too much, the lifeguards arrived on their surfboards.”
The teenagers were guided to grab the handholds on the boards and with the help of the waves, they were brought back to safety.
“I have a memory of a couple of young men (the lifeguards) who were calm, knowledgeable and reassuring, and so a potential disaster was averted.
“To my eternal embarrassment though, I was so angry at my brother and myself that I just walked away and never thanked the two lifeguards involved.
“So, it might be 46 years later, but I finally got back to Sawtell… and wanted to apologise and say thanks.”
By Andrea FERRARI
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