A 14-year-old surf lifesaver has been hailed as a hero after keeping an injured paddleboarder alive during a dramatic rescue in rough seas.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Oscar was surfing at Saunton Sands in Devon when he spotted 60-year-old Gavin Bowden in serious trouble, per BBC News.
Bowden had been struck on the head by his own board, leaving him temporarily paralysed while out in heavy surf.
Despite the frightening conditions – and the significant size difference between the pair – Oscar immediately went to help.
“I saw someone had been injured on their board and just instinctively went over to them to see if they were OK, which they weren’t and then I helped them.
“I was quite scared at the beginning that I wouldn’t be able to lift him because he’s quite a big guy but I just had the determination to help him.”
Oscar, a junior surf lifesaver, managed to pull Bowden partly on to his board before signalling towards the shore for assistance.
With the swell building and waves repeatedly flipping the board, the teenager made the crucial decision not to attempt to return to the beach.
“I knew he had a big board strapped to his leg and if I tried to go in and a wave came and he gets hit off, he’d get dragged in and I might lose sight of him – it could’ve just got so much worse.”
Bowden later explained that the initial impact had left him paralysed and face down in the water. After managing to turn himself over, he called for help.
“I called ‘help’ three times and then Oscar was there and said ‘I’m here’.
“He was trying to hang on to me and trying to wave and I was saying ‘don’t leave me kid, don’t leave me’ and he was saying ‘I won’t leave you, I won’t leave you’.”
Oscar then focused on keeping Bowden calm while continuing to signal for assistance.
“I started to calm him down because he almost started panicking and he was worrying about what was going to happen next but I just tried to keep him calm whilst waving to dad and Neil.”
On shore, Oscar’s father Danny was watching alongside Neil Phillips, a coach for Saunton Sands Surf Life Saving Club juniors.
“The first way we realised something was wrong was when we just saw two dots close together and a small arm waving frantically with the correct signals of a surfer in distress in the water.”
Danny contacted the coastguard, but surfers on the beach were unable to reach the pair because of the increasing swell.
Oscar ultimately kept Bowden afloat for around 30 minutes before an RNLI inshore lifeboat arrived and took the injured man back to shore. Bowden was subsequently taken to the Royal Devon Hospital in Exeter for emergency treatment and remained in hospital until Monday.
Phillips described the teenager’s actions as exceptional.
“Oscar’s rescue was just textbook,” he said. “I’m very good friends with Gavin so I was doubly emotionally invested watching Oscar looking after a friend of mine.
“I’m really proud of Oscar. He was just amazing, he saved a life.”
Adrian Mayhew, national operations and safety manager at Surf Life Saving GB, also praised the teenager’s remarkable composure.
“I’ve been in lifesaving since 1997 and I’ve never seen anybody of such a young age go out in waves as big as that and have the maturity to recognise the situation, recognise they need assistance and to manage that for 30 minutes is literally unheard of.”
Bowden was continuing to recover, although his hands remained numb after his spinal cord was stretched when the board struck his head.
For the man whose life Oscar helped save, however, the teenager’s impact could be summed up much more simply.
“Oscar is my hero”.
Featured image credit: Leon Kohle / Pexels
