Beach contractor saves father and daughter from rip current at Brenton on Sea

A sand-castle builder used an NSRI pink rescue buoy to save a father and daughter caught in a rip current at Brenton on Sea. A quick-thinking beach contractor armed with an NSRI pink rescue buoy saved a father and daughter from a rip current at Brenton on Sea on Saturday, moments before NSRI crews arrived. At 1.15pm, Knysna’s National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) was activated after eyewitnesses reported two people in distress in the surf, Station 12 commander Jerome Simonis said.

“Eyewitnesses reported two persons in distress in the surf zone caught in rip currents,” he said. NSRI rescue swimmers and off-duty lifeguards raced to the beach while rescue craft JayTee IV and Katharine were launched. Police, ER24 and Western Cape Government Health EMS also responded.

When NSRI crews reached the shoreline, they found the two casualties, a 45-year-old father and his 17-year-old daughter, already out of the water. The pair, holidaying from Limpopo, had been rescued moments earlier by a Good Samaritan using the NSRI pink rescue buoy stationed at the beach. According to Simonis, “They had both been rescued from the surf zone by a Good Samaritan man using an NSRI pink rescue buoy (stationed at the beach at Brenton on Sea).”