HERE’S TO THE NSRI’S PINK RESCUE BUOYS!

NIALL CAMERON HAS spent much of his life in or on the ocean. On Christmas Day 2021, he got a call from a mate down the road on the beachfront of the swimming bay at Cannon Rocks.

‘Have you got eyes on the ocean?’ the friend asked.

Running outside, Niall saw two men in the water, far off the beach, close to Port Alfred. It appeared they had capsized and had been separated from their fishing kayak.

Niall tells us what happened next:

‘When I ran out onto our front lawn, I saw two guys about 400m out. Far off the back line. It looked to me like they had been knocked off a fishing kayak and caught in a very strong rip current. An erratic and tumultuous southeastern swell was running, with 2.5m sets coming through. They were in a dangerous situation.

‘Realising the urgency, I asked my wife, Tess, to go to my Land Rover and fetch my long carbon spearfishing fins. I also asked Ngoni, a visitor from Zimbabwe who does not know the ocean, to run to the bay and get me the Pink Rescue Buoy and then to meet me in front of our house at the water’s edge.

‘Knowing that the ocean was cold – about 15˚C – I donned my full-length wetsuit, took swimming goggles and ran down to the water. Ngoni had pulled the whole Pink Rescue Buoy support pole out of the ground and ran to meet me at the beach. Moments later, I chose a line to swim out, using the rip current, and soon reached the two guys,’ says Niall.

In danger of drowning were two brothers, Johannesburg residents who had been visiting Cannon Rocks since their childhood. It later turned out that the one had seen his brother capsize his fishing kayak and, realising that he was unable to remount, decided to swim out to help him.

A local surfer and a friend of Niall, Andre van der Spuy, had also seen the danger that the two men were in and responded on his long board. On reaching them, Andre asked the stronger of the two brothers to hold onto his surfboard while he paddled him back to the beach.

Niall carries on: ‘Meanwhile I passed the Pink Buoy to the man who had capsized. He was exhausted and held it under his chest while I finned on my back using the Pink Buoy rope and harness to pull hard, keeping a couple of metres between us, so that I could still watch and talk to him. I was confident that, once we could get into the surf zone, we could use the waves to reach the shore.

‘The whole event took the best part of a 30-minute hard swim, followed by a twohour stabilisation on the beach, where he was treated for hypothermia and severe fatigue.

‘There were many trips back and forth to our house by my 12-year-old son Jesse to fetch towels, my oxygen kit and digital thermo- meter, as well as hot sweet black tea. The medical help from Ashlynn Wilkins, a fellow beachgoer and paramedic student, ensured we had all we needed. A doctor eventually came and we got the casualty off the beach to the ambulance in a mate’s 4x4. It was a close call. But another life was saved using a Pink Rescue Buoy,’ says Niall. ‘Thanks to all the Cannon Rocks locals for helping and keeping a keen eye on the ocean.’

According to NSRI Drowning Prevention manager Andrew Ingram, this was the 84th person they know of who has been rescued using a Pink Rescue Buoy. ‘I was so proud of our programme when I spoke to the casualty about his rescue,’ he says. “I am very grateful the Pink Buoy was there. It really did save my life,” the casualty shared with Andrew.