‘I thought they were dead’: Teen hero recounts epic swim that saved his family

The boy behind a miraculous 4km swim through rough seas that saved his family has told how positive thinking and faith got him through the ordeal.

Austin Appelbee, 13, on Tuesday talked about how he fought massive waves and fear to swim back to safety, before having to then run another 2km to raise the alarm.

Austin, his mother Joanne, and his younger brother and sister got into trouble on Friday while paddling in the normally calm waters of Geographe Bay, near Dunsborough in Western Australia’s southwest. Strong winds and currents dragged the family 4km out to sea, and with no boats in sight and panic setting in, his mother told him to take his kayak and try to get help.

After two hours of trying to swim to shore, Austin said he ­realised the buoyancy of the lifejacket meant he was not making enough progress. He took off the lifejacket and spent two hours amid “massive waves” using freestyle, breaststroke and survival backstroke to reach shore.

Geographe Bay is notorious for great white sharks, and Austin said he thought he saw “something” in the water during his swim, but focused on keeping negative thoughts away.

“I was just thinking in my head that I was going to make it through. I was also thinking of all my friends at school and friends at my Christian Youth. I just said all right, not today, not today, not today. I have to keep going,” he said.

He was also buoyed by thoughts of his girlfriend, who had earlier given him some of her hair elastics. “She gave me her lackeys and I was just looking at that the whole time,” he said.

After initially collapsing when he made it to shore, Austin then had to “sprint” another 2km to a phone to call triple 0.

He said the enormity of the situation hit him only when he called his father, who was in Perth, to let him know what had happened.

At that stage, his mother and siblings had still not been found. “I was bawling, I finally ­realised they were gone. I thought they were dead,” he said.

He said he was carrying a lot of guilt at that time and was worried he had not swam fast enough.

Minutes after that call to his father, however, came the news that the rest of the family had been ­rescued.

Amid the darkness, a helicopter using heat sensors had found the family, and had guided a boat to rescue them. By the time they were found, the family were some 14km out to sea.

Austin said he had not eaten anything on the day of the ordeal, had slept poorly the night before, and had a strange feeling that morning that something bad was going to happen.

The boy – who had been taking swimming lessons since he was four but had never previously swam more than 350m at a time – said he was convinced his faith had helped him during the swim.

“I don’t think it was me who did it, it was God the whole time. I kept praying and praying, I said to God ‘I’ll get baptised, I’ll get baptised’,” he said.

His mother told how she feared Austin had not made it back to shore as she and her other children clung to their inflatable paddleboard. As the sun went down, she said she began to worry about whether she had made the right decision to send Austin to get help. “I would have never went as I would have had to leave the kids at sea, so I had to send somebody. There was no boats, there was nothing we could get hold of,” she said.

“As it got darker, I thought ‘there’s no one coming to save us’. We were cold, we were shaking … it was pretty terrifying for a while. And I lost my glasses, so I couldn’t see much.”

She said she was extremely proud of her son.

The family spent Friday night in hospital being treated for hypothermia and shock. They have no injuries, although Austin said he had incredibly sore legs.

WA Premier Roger Cook praised Austin for his “most extraordinary effort” to save his family.

“What an extraordinary thing to have done,” he said. “This young fellow managed to swim for over four hours to get to shore to get help for his family. We are immensely proud of that.”

Great example for kids of perseverance and courage.

Sophia wrote Yesterday at 12:54pm:



The boy said he was convinced his faith had helped him during the swim.

“I don’t think it was me who did it, it was God the whole time. I kept praying and praying, I said to God ‘I’ll get baptised, I’ll get baptised’,” he said.

...

Austin said he had incredibly sore legs.


He could take Sebastian as his babtismal name, the saint of endurance.
Or Berthold.



What an inspired and inspiring boy.

greggerypeccary wrote Yesterday at 7:09pm:



Yeah, despicable creep, tell the 13 year old boy that he doesn't know what he's talking about and you know better.

Repulsive.

I was just reading the story that the young lad actually took off his life jacket ….and, interesting about the swimming programme 

With the wind continuing to batter the small kayak, which was still taking on water, Austin decided to swim for the beach, removing his life jacket in the process which was hampering his strokes.
The 13-year-old had recently finished a school holiday swimming program — but was not allowed to progress to the next level after struggling to swim 350 metres continuously.
Yet somehow, out in the open ocean amid choppy seas, and with his family's life depending on it, he managed.