A 14-year-old boy held a paralysed surfer on an upturned paddleboard for more than half an hour in heavy surf off the north Devon coast, telling him: “Don’t leave me, kid.” Gavin Bowden, 63, had been knocked flat by his own board and left floating face down, unable to move a muscle. The boy holding him up was Oscar McCrae, who refused to let go.
Oscar said: “If I left him, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I could have helped him. I had to at least try.” The accident happened last April at Saunton Sands, a three-mile surf beach near Braunton, North Devon, with no lifeguard service of its own. The story will be featured on an upcoming episode of Saving Lives At Sea, shown on BBC Two at 8pm on Tuesdays.
A wave flips the board onto his head
A popular haunt for surfers and paddleboarders, the beach was unusually quiet that day. The sea was rough and the wind was up. Gavin, a lifelong surfer who grew up in Sydney, had the break to himself on a 10-foot-4-inch paddleboard, before Oscar paddled out on his surfboard.
On the sand, Oscar's father Danny had already clocked the danger. Danny said: “I said, that chap on a massive big paddle board in these waves is playing with fire. My friend went, oh no, it's Gavin, he's a really good surfer, he'll be okay. One mistake and he's in a lot of trouble.”
“I can’t move, I can’t move”
Minutes later Gavin wiped out, and the wind flipped his heavy board back onto his head. Gavin said: “It hit just above my forehead. All I felt was a dull thud. I was immediately paralysed, just boom, straight away.” His wetsuit kept him afloat, face down, unable to move his arms or his legs. Then the next wave turned him over.
Now face up, still paralysed, Gavin shouted for help three times. On the third shout, Oscar was there. Gavin said: “He said, I'm here, I've got you, I've got you. The first thing I said was, I can't move, I can't move. Don't leave me, kid, I can't move. He said, I won't leave you.” Gavin said: “It was a huge relief, but I was in a panic. All I wanted to do was get out of the water, because I'm paralysed.”
Trained since age eight
Getting a grown man onto a board was the hardest part. Gavin's paddleboard had flipped fin side up and slick, and each time Oscar pushed him across it he slid back off. Gavin said: “I'm sliding off, because I can't. It's like a big dead weight, I can't do anything.”
Oscar worked under him, around him and back again, until he had the older man's arms hooked over the board and his own locked across the top. He had trained for this at the Saunton Sands club since he was eight, hauling weighted dummies off the pool floor. Oscar said: “I just knew how to keep him propped up out of the water. It helped a lot.”
Distress signal and a 999 call
Once they were steady, outside the worst of the surf, Oscar swept one arm slowly from side to side, the distress signal he had learned on his first day of training. Danny said: “It's just a slow wave, like that. Not a hi, I'm fine. Something's going on, I need attention out here.”
Danny is a surfer himself, but he was hurt that day, and so was the friend beside him. Danny said: “We both were carrying injuries so we couldn’t go into the water ourselves, we'd just add to the problem.” He dialled 999, the call went to the RNLI, and an inshore lifeboat launched from Appledore. Then the wait began.
Danny said: “We didn't know who was who. I was thinking, if it was Oscar, that's all right, I think it'll be fine. But not the other person. If it's Oscar that's injured, then you're thinking, I don't know. But then I got hold of a telescopic camera and I could look out and see that it was Oscar, and I knew he would be fine doing the rescue. He’s trained, he knows what he’s doing. We didn't know if Gavin was awake. It looked like he was unconscious in the water.”
Held for over half an hour
For more than half an hour Oscar held Gavin on the board, kicking out to sea to keep the waves off them, waiting for a boat neither of them could see. To keep the older man calm, he kept him talking. Oscar said: “I just asked him simple questions, what his job was, how many kids he had, where he'd been on holiday. I wanted him to stay calm.”
On the beach, Danny watched through a long lens, not knowing if the man in the water was still alive. At last a longboarder, sent out by Danny, reached them with word that help was coming, and moments later the lifeboat arrived and lifted Gavin aboard.
Matt Rowe was one of the RNLI crew called out to help. Matt said: “Gavin was conscious, talking, but really dazed, an obvious head injury to the front of his head, unable to make too much sense at that point. If no one had seen that and come to his help, we could have been picking a body out of the water. There's no doubt about that.
“He was really unlucky to have that accident, and then really lucky that Oscar was there and knew what to do. Not every 14 year old would have that about them.”
“To say I was proud is the understatement”
Only when Oscar was back safe on the sand did he start to think about what had happened. His first phone call was to his mum. Alison said: “Tears came to my eyes. I was speechless. To say I was proud is the understatement of the century.”
The family had moved from Scotland to Devon a decade earlier, so the children could grow up by the sea. Alison said: “When we came down, we saw the kids in the water with the Surf Lifesaving Club, and I thought - that's what I want for my kids. We thought, if we live near the sea, we want our kids to be safe in the sea, and our kids are so safe that they're helping other people as well.”
Gavin spent three nights in hospital, as doctors gave him an MRI scan and monitored his recovery. Once he was out, Gavin went to the Appledore lifeboat station on a crew night to thank the volunteers, with Oscar and his family there too. Gavin said: “I thanked everyone, gave them some bottles of wine and a little speech, and I gave Oscar a couple of gifts.”
The two still keep in touch. Gavin said: “At New Year I sent him a message saying thanks, I'm glad I'm still here, and I did the same on the anniversary of the accident in April.”
The Mirror’s Save Lives for Sam campaign is calling for water safety lessons. Alison said: “It's absolutely vital that if you're going to put your kids in the sea, they have to have a bit of knowledge and awareness. Where we live there are deaths every single year, and it's absolutely horrific. It is life or death.”
Gavin is now back in the water - although he has vowed not to surf alone - and back at work. He added: “It could have been a lot worse. You just don't know. But I'm glad I didn't have to find out. I had a guardian angel that day. His name was Oscar.”
Saving Lives At Sea is on BBC Two at 8pm on Tuesdays.
