Clovelly SLSC members recognised ROM April 2021 Branch Winner

Congratulations to members of Clovelly SLSC who have been recognised  as Branch winner Rescue of the Month April 2021. 
It was a balmy Sunday morning on the 11 April 2021, with a brisk wind and choppy seas and large sets coming through, when Patrol 6 doing their last patrol of the Season did a rove at Gordons Bay at approximately 11.50am. They were sitting on the rocks at the boat ramp watching the swimmers when Hugo Holt (15years old) noticed a group of scuba divers drifting towards the rock about (5 meters from the boat ramp) and went to check if they were alright.
One of the ladies in the group was not managing. She was struggling as we later found out her dive equipment wasn’t working (and she had lost her mouthpiece). Her Dive Master Damon tried to swim her in but the conditions were too much for her, and Damon was struggling to swim in with her. The Divers usually use the boat ramp to enter and exit the water, but the conditions had worsened making it really difficult to come in.
He signaled to Hugo Holt (15 year old Bronze) for assistance. Hugo called to Cormac Hickey (15 year old Bronze) and Madeleine Soo (13 years SRC) to bring the tube. He entered the water and helped keep the diver above water until he was met by Cormac and Maddie with the tube. The tube didn’t fit round her with all her equipment so Maddie and Cormac they asked her to hold onto the tube while they swam her in where they then assisted her onto the rocks to safety by the remaining patrol.
When Cormac got Hugo’s request for assistance, he dispatched Diego to the headlands to try and radio through to the Patrol. They were in a black spot. The wind and low cloud cover wasn’t conducive to line site radio transmission, however Diego Del Busto (SRC) managed to get a signal and radioed his Patrol Captain that they were conducting rescues on a group of divers.
Roslyn Manuel (PC) contacted the Council Lifeguards to inform them that a rescue was going down and dispatched her ARTC and Silver Search and Rescue operators Richard Baskin, Fiona Phelps, Nancy Mikhaiel and Edwardo Sanchez to assist with First Aid kit, Oxygen and Defib, as there was no further communication with the Patrol at Gordons Bay.
With Damon trying to assist the female diver, the remaining 4 people in his dive party got detached from the group.
They together with another 4 free divers were helped out of the water onto the rocks to safety led by Hugo who remained in the water to assist them up the rocks while the SRC’s lined up on the rocks in order to help pull the divers in. During this time Support Ski 3 had arrived and assisted by bringing 2 of the patients who had drifted quite far out closer to the shore, so that Hugo and his team could assist them onto the rocks to safety.
By the time the additional members of patrol had arrived, including the lifeguard, everyone had been safely assisted onto the rocks and out of danger.
Due to Hugo’s quick thinking and leadership together with Cormac and Maddie and the rest of the roving patrol, they were able to extract all 10 divers out of the water with none of them needing any additional assistance.
Hugo Holt completed his Bronze in October 2021
Cormac Hickey complete his SRC – Bronze April 2021
Madeline Soo, Mathew Ching, Noah Fontaine & James Young completed their SRC this season
Diego has completed his second year as an SRC and will do his Bronze next season.
A debrief was held by Roslyn Manuel (Patrol Captain) and Matt Spooner (Sydney 10; Director of Lifesaving & Education).
Follow up phone calls were done 13 April 2021 to check on the welfare of the rescuers by Roslyn Manuel (Patrol Captain).

In the words of my college Ed Sanchez:
What a TEAM! Such a strong bunch of selfless driven young guns, it safe to say that we are proud that this is the future of our club! What an awesome bunch!