A 17-year-old boy from New York became stranded during a mighty storm in Porthcawl and ended up fighting for his life in the waves. After making it to a rock near the shore, he had to hang on as tight as he could while the RNLI crew from the area made their way to the location.
BBC series, Saving Lives at Sea, replayed the moment he was rescued on episode one of Series 6 on Wednesday night (February 22). The series heard how, being a huge fan of surfing, the teenage boy, Jack, had wanted to make the most of the swell he knew was coming and wanted to test out the town’s surfing spot, Monknash.
Together with some surfer friends he jumped on a bus and headed to the spot, but things took a turn for the worst when they realised how big the waves were. Once they got in and felt the tide, they decided to make their way back out again. You can get more local news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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But Jack ended up getting swept out into the water, and despite his friends trying to help, the current was far too strong so they decided the best thing to do was call 999. Describing the day that Jack, was rescued from “grave danger” in early January, 2020, during Storm Brendan, a volunteer at Porthcawl’s RNLI and chip shop owner, Bee, said: “I remember the weather being cold. Almost like an eeriness to the weather. The one thing I can remember was the roar. And that roar was from the waves breaking against the shoreline."
Another volunteer, and staff nurse, Angharad said: “I was just about to make some food and my pager went off. I went straight down to the station in my uniform.”
The crew rushed to prepare the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat for launch, and once they were out at sea, the waves were much bigger than they expected. While they were out there, they had to constantly turn back to shore to prevent the boat from capsizing. Bee recalled the storm during the episode, saying “The size of the waves that day meant that the only way we could approach and hit them was head on. It wasn’t until they went around one of the coves that they were able to spot him on the rocks."
But the cliff face, the rocks, and walls of water throwing tonnes of it at the shoreline where Jack was amongst the chaos made it particularly challenging. It eventually became so difficult that the crew decided to call in the coastguard helicopter.
But, just after the call was made, Jack disappeared into the water. Realising there was no way the teenager would survive if they waited until the helicopter got there, Bee made the decision to move closer to shore where the surf line was, and where the waves became much bigger.
He said: “We hit one wave and the way the boat reacted, I knew that we were going to be operating in the absolute limits of what we, both as a crew and the boat, were capable of. And I also knew that there was no back-up.”
Jack ended up having to swim towards the boat, but after spending 45 minutes trying to hold onto the cliffs, it was a struggle and he was stuck behind them. Eventually, despite the boat being hit by a wall of water, the crew managed to pull him up into the vessel.
Opening the engine up, Bee moved them all out of the danger zone and began checking to see if the teenager was ok - luckily, he had managed to come out of the area unharmed. He said: “I look over my shoulder and there is this blonde bombshell of a guy with a massive smile on his face.”
There has been a lifeboat station in Porthcawl since 1860, which now averages around 100 launches a year according to the BBC episode. The RNLI said beaches in and around Porthcawl were hugely popular with tourists, with Bee noting some being “the first surf-able beaches from London.”
He added: “We’re quite a busy station. You have a lot of people that potentially don’t know the coastline, don’t know the waters, some in the wrong place at the wrong time. When you’re not paying attention to the sea it can be very cruel.”
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