The Margaret River surfing community is calling for more safety precautions at Western Australia’s surfing mecca following the death of a surfer at a notorious break known as Bombie.<\/p>\n
Experienced surfer and trained lifeguard Sean Lennon was pulled out of the water by other surfers on Gnarabup Beach in Prevelly, about 270 kilometres south of Perth, on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Sadly, he could not be revived.<\/p>\n
He was among the surfers out taking advantage of big swells on the day.<\/p>\n
The beaches along Prevelly and Gnarabup are world famous, with the Margaret River Pro running in various forms there since 1985.<\/p>\n
Emergency nurse Mitchell Cooper is a friend of Mr Lennon and was surfing at a nearby beach.<\/p>\n
“It was pretty gut-wrenching,” Mr Cooper said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not a great feeling at all when that’s going down and you hear two ambulances and see the commotion on the beach.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sean Lennon’s death has sparked calls for better ocean safety from local surfers. (Supplied: Tom Pearsall)<\/p>\n
A passion for ocean safety<\/p>\n
Friends remember Mr Lennon, who was in his 50s, as a happy and enthusiastic surfer who was passionate about ocean safety.<\/p>\n
They have vowed to continue his fight to improve beach safety.<\/p>\n
Mr Cooper grew up just 50km away from Mr Lennon in regional New South Wales, where they both worked as lifeguards, though their paths did not cross until they both moved west to Margaret River.<\/p>\n
Mr Cooper said more needed to be done to make local beaches safer.<\/p>\n
“It’s getting to the point that we have had a few of these mishaps, and who knows how many near misses as well,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I just feel like it needs to be like the eastern states or Hawaii, where you have council-paid lifeguards who are incentivised with decent pay and trained properly.<\/p>\n
“So you’d have a couple of towers that have a good vantage point, communication and a jet ski.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Margaret River’s surfing community has been devastated by the recent tragedy at Bombie break. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
The ‘grandaddy’ of waves<\/p>\n
Mr Lennon’s friend, Bec Sheedy-Ryan, said he had been preparing and training ahead of taking on the “intense” waves at the Bombie break where he died.<\/p>\n
Bombie surf break is located between Gnarabup and Main Break at Surfers Point, where the Margaret River Pro is held as part of the World Surf League tour.<\/p>\n
“It’s like the grandaddy of all the waves \u2026 on any given day, it’s always getting the biggest waves,” Ms Sheedy-Ryan said.<\/p>\n
“I know he had been doing a lot of physical and mental preparation.”<\/p>\n
She said she wanted to see locals trained up to help in water emergencies.<\/p>\n
“We have got so many incredible ocean people in this area,” Ms Sheedy-Ryan said.<\/p>\n
“Just to get them upskilled and trained up in rescue would make a huge difference straight off the bat because they’re often first on scene.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sean Lennon’s death comes two years after the disappearance of veteran surfer Aaron Beveridge at a nearby surf break. (ABC South West WA: Andrew Williams)<\/p>\n
Calls for government action<\/p>\n
The Margaret River surfing community last faced tragedy when Aaron Beveridge disappeared while surfing at Surfer’s Point in Prevelly in 2024.<\/p>\n
A WA Police investigation concluded Mr Beveridge most likely drowned after his leg rope got caught on a reef.<\/p>\n
Veteran surfer Mitch Thorson said Mr Beveridge was an experienced surfer who had previously faced some of the biggest waves alongside him.<\/p>\n
“He met his fate under similar circumstances where the power of the ocean just overwhelmed him,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s very sad, but it just highlights how vulnerable even the most experienced people can be in the surf around here.”<\/p>\n
Mr Thorson said the local and state governments needed to heed the local surfing community’s calls for more safety awareness.<\/p>\n
“There’s a real population explosion in this area of people immigrating here from other states and countries,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of adult learners \u2026 who are fit and strong, who are capable paddlers, able to get themselves out to these surf breaks, but they’re not necessarily aware of what the dangers are.”<\/p>\n
He said local surfers would like to see signage erected with a surf break rating system, similar to those found in ski fields or on bush walks.<\/p>\n
The ABC has contacted the state government and the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Margaret River surfing community is calling for more safety precautions at Western Australia’s surfing mecca following the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,157796,153730,44,45545,157797,153283,45],"class_list":["post-271426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bombie","tag-margaret-river-pro","tag-news","tag-ocean-safety","tag-sean-lennon","tag-south-west-wa","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}