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 Teenage volunteer surf lifesaver, Sam Doonan, will never forget the day of his first lifesaving rescue.
For Sam and his brother Joe, Sunday, October 21 was supposed to be a day for a leisurely swim at Kings Beach, Caloundra QLD but this shortly turned into a dramatic surf rescue.
For New Orleans singer/songwriter Jon Cleary, his plan for this Sunday morning was also a swim at Kings Beach, before performing as a major
act at the Caloundra Music Festival later that night. However, Jon’s enjoyable swim at the beach turned into fear when he became caught in a major rip.
It wasn’t too long until the force of the rip became too much & the exhausted swimmer had gone under the water twice.
Luckily, Sam Doonan, an off duty lifesaver with Metropolitan Caloundra SLSC spotted Jon signalling for desperate help and quickly came to the rescue on his surf board, towing him safely to shore.
Little did Sam know, he had just rescued a famous patient, and was equally just as happy to have saved a life!
“I didn’t have a clue. He was just another bloke out there,” Sam said. “It was really special. It was worth it, definitely.”
Sam’s rescue skills, acquired through his lifesaver training, paid off on this Sunday.“My dad wanted me to get into surf lifesaving because he wanted me to get a better understanding of the surf,” he said.
And thanks to Sam’s quick actions, Mr Cleary was given oxygen by fellow patrolling lifesavers before being taken to Caloundra Hospital.
The famous blues singer described the experience of getting caught in a rip as terribly frightening.“I started swimming back and I realised as hard as I was swimming, I wasn’t getting anywhere,” Mr Cleary said.
Luckily, Jon recovered from his near drowning experience and went ahead with his performance on the Sunday evening where he payed tribute to his rescuer.
Ironically, Metropolitan Caloundra SLSC was a major beneficiary from the performance.
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