- Austin Appelbee, 13, was paddleboarding with his mum and siblings in Geographe Bay when strong winds swept them dangerously out to sea
- Against all odds, Austin battled wild weather to rescue his family and called emergency services for help
- His mum and siblings were later rescued safely after being found 14km offshore following 10 hours stranded at sea
Here Austin Appelbee, 13, Gidgegannup, WA tells his own story in his own words.
Wading into the calm clear water with my paddleboard, I felt so refreshed.
It was January this year, and I’d spent the last four days holidaying in Geographe Bay, WA, with my mum, Joanne, 47, and siblings, Beau, 12, and Grace, eight.
We’d decided on one last paddleboarding trip before we made the three-hour drive back to our home in Gidgegannup, WA, ahead of the new school year.
‘Hurry up,’ I called to Mum who was pulling the inflatable board she’d hired for her and Grace down the sand towards me around 10.30am.
READ MORE: Seven-year-old boy and his dad lost at sea for SIX hours are saved by a BUCKET
Beau trailed behind with a kayak. We only had two hours before we had to leave and I was impatient to get into the water.
We’d been paddling for a bit when I heard Mum scream, followed by a splash. The wind had picked up so it was getting harder to balance and I could see she’d fallen in, while Grace managed to stay on the board.
‘I’m coming,’ I shouted, but, with the stronger wind and sudden waves, it took a minute to reach her.
Mum had lost her paddle, so she tethered her leg rope to mine and, after I gave her my paddle, she tried to pull us both back to shore. Beau, who had been paddling closer to shore, saw us struggling and came to help.
‘I heard Mum scream, followed by a splash’
But in all the commotion we hadn’t realised we’d been drifting.
We could easily see the beach, but it was getting harder to paddle towards it.
Try as we might, we only kept drifting out, the shoreline becoming more and more distant and the water becoming dark and deep. No matter how hard we tried to paddle towards land, the farther it slipped away.
It had all gone wrong so quickly…
Eventually Mum swapped with Beau to have a go in the kayak, trying to pull the paddleboards with that. But being a small kayak for kids, that didn’t work.
‘I’m too heavy for it,’ she groaned as it filled with water and began to sink.
By now, the wind was howling and we’d been battling against the waves for around three hours, as Mum, me and my siblings desperately clung to our vessels. In the chaos, I realised my paddle had also floated away.
READ MORE: Ocean rescue: ‘I was swept out to sea’
‘Austin, take the kayak and ask the hotel to send a boat out for us,’ Mum said finally. ‘We’ll be fine here.’
As I looked toward the land, it didn’t seem too far.
Besides, my family were counting on me. ‘I’ll be back soon,’ I promised, getting into the kayak.
Like Mum, I was too heavy for it. I wobbled along for 100 metres using the paddle, then flipped out. Dragging myself back on, I tried again but the same thing happened.
This will take forever, I thought as I flipped again.
This time, I found myself trapped underneath the kayak with one of the tether ropes wrapped around my chest.
I’m stuck, I panicked, unable to breathe.
Fighting hard to break free, I somehow found the surface. Clambering back on the kayak, heart pounding, I clung to it for dear life.
Peering back, I realised that I couldn’t see my family anymore and, as adrenalin coursed through me, I caught a shadow of something dark in the water.
Sharks! I worried.
Clinging to the kayak, I tried to work out what to do.
But now, the answer was clear. I had to swim to save my family.
‘I found myself trapped underneath the kayak’
Pushing predators to the back of my mind, I slipped into the deep blue ocean.
I swam my heart out, but my life jacket was holding me back against the current.
Stuff it, I thought, taking it off.
Alternating between backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle to try and conserve my energy, I continued with all my might.
There were moments I wanted to quit, but knowing I was my family’s only hope, I ploughed on.
My legs were like jelly but I kept kicking, thinking of my favourite songs, and my girlfriend Evie, then 13 – anything to keep going.
READ MORE: Hiking accident: I plunged 18 metres off a cliff to save my pup!
It was another two hours before my feet finally touched the sand. I’d made it!
Stumbling through the shallows, I just wanted to lie down but I still needed to get to my phone on the beach, about two kilometres away from where I’d ended up.
I sprinted across the sand as fast as I could, but it seemed to take an eternity.
My body was on the edge of collapse when I finally reached my phone, but I knew I had to hold it together to call Emergency. By now, it was around 6pm.
‘We couldn’t get back to shore,’ I told the operator, explaining my family were stranded kilometres out at sea. ‘I think we need a helicopter to go find them.’
‘Help is on the way,’ the person assured me.
By the time the call ended, I felt like I was going to pass out from exhaustion.
Within minutes, police and paramedics were there with me.
‘You’re safe now, mate,’ they said, as I was loaded into an ambulance and taken to Busselton Health Campus.
There, I was treated for hypothermia and put on a drip for dehydration.
All the while, I kept thinking of my family.
Was I fast enough? I wondered, racked with guilt, praying they weren’t dead.
Police went to my dad Justin’s place to tell him what was happening, and he headed straight down to Busselton hospital to be with me.
Finally, after they’d been stranded at sea for 10 hours, at about 8.30pm, police confirmed Mum, Beau and Grace had been found safely, 14km out from land.
It felt like a dream.
At 9.30pm, Mum, Beau and Grace were finally wheeled in.
‘What took you so long?’ Beau joked.
‘I felt like I was going to pass out from exhaustion’
Mum was bawling her eyes out and they all looked sunburnt and exhausted.
Dad joined us later that night, and everyone made a huge fuss.
‘You’re a real hero,’ a doctor told me.
‘You’ll be on the front page,’ Dad smiled proudly.
But I’m not a hero – Mum, my siblings and all the amazing people who came to their rescue are.
Even so, I didn’t expect the response to my actions to be so huge.
The State Premier, Roger Cook, wrote to me, and the headlines worldwide were about my ‘superhuman swim’.
Incredibly, a man from Tasmania even organised a GoFundMe, where kind strangers from across the country raised over $47,000 for my efforts.
We all stayed in hospital overnight and were treated for dehydration and exhaustion.
It was a long night and Mum couldn’t sleep, but by the next day we were discharged.
Back at school two months on, I’m just glad that Mum, Beau and Grace are okay and we made it out alive.
I’m sure anyone in my position would do the same to save their family.
To help out Austin and his family, search ‘Austin Applebee a true champion’ on GoFundMe.
Joanne says:
When I sent Austin to get help I was more embarrassed we’d got ourselves in this position than frightened. But that changed after a few hours – I thought I’d made the complete wrong decision and sent him to his death.
By 8.30pm, it had been nearly 10 hours and it was dark, cold and the waves were about 10 foot. I kept falling into the water and I lost my glasses so I couldn’t see. I was comforting the kids, but mentally preparing for us to die… then we saw the planes.
A helicopter stayed on us and there was a boat, but then a big wave came and the kids were swept away.
I thought they were gone until we heard Grace shout. Even when we were all rescued, I still thought Austin was gone, so when I found out he saved us I couldn’t believe it.
In hospital I couldn’t hug him straight away as he was on a drip, but we all lay beside each other that night. I couldn’t sleep even though I was exhausted. The rescue crew told us we were 14.5km out in 45 metre deep water. It’s amazing we were found.
The kids were all such heroes that day.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
