{"id":453604,"date":"2026-02-02T13:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/453604\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:00:11","slug":"boy-13-makes-superhuman-swim-to-save-family-swept-out-to-sea-in-geographe-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/453604\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy, 13, makes ‘superhuman’ swim to save family swept out to sea in Geographe Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 13-year-old boy has been hailed as a hero after swimming 4 kilometres through rough waters for help after his mother and two siblings were swept out to sea off Western Australia’s South West.<\/p>\n

The family were holidaying at Quindalup, 250 kilometres south of Perth, when their inflatable paddleboards and kayak were pushed offshore by strong winds on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

The 13-year-old tried to paddle back to shore on his kayak before it took on water in rough seas.<\/p>\n

He then swam for four more hours to shore and successfully raised the alarm.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The rescue was mounted from the boat ramp on Quindalup Beach. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

Naturaliste Marine Rescue commander Paul Bresland said the 47-year-old mother, her 12-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter were eventually found at 8:30pm, clinging to a paddleboard about 14km offshore.<\/p>\n

Mr Bresland said the efforts of the 13-year-old, who continued to swim to shore through choppy waters, were “superhuman”.<\/p>\n

“He swam in, he reckons, the first two hours with a life jacket on,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Volunteers point out the location of the rescue in Geographe Bay. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

“And the brave fella thought he’s not going to make it with a life jacket on, so he ditched it, and he swam the next two hours without a life jacket.<\/p>\n

“I thought, mate, that is incredible.”Search and rescue effort<\/p>\n

Once the teen reached land and raised the alarm, a multi-agency search and rescue operation was mobilised, including WA Water Police, local marine rescue volunteers and Western Australia’s Rescue Helicopter.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Bresland and Dan Crosbie praised both the 13-year-old boy and his mother for their part in the rescue. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

South West Police Inspector James Bradley said it was an important reminder of ocean safety.<\/p>\n

“Thankfully, all three people were wearing life jackets, which contributed to their survival,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The actions of the 13-year-old boy cannot be praised highly enough \u2014 his determination and courage ultimately saved the lives of his mother and siblings.”<\/p>\n

Mr Bresland said the 13-year-old’s detailed description of the colour of the kayak and paddleboards was invaluable to search efforts.<\/p>\n

“Within an hour, we found the kayak,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the family were treading water in rough seas for hours before they were found.<\/p>\n

The mother somehow managed to keep the other children with the paddleboard.<\/p>\n

\"Vessel<\/p>\n

Naturaliste Marine Rescue volunteers helped locate the family after the boy swam to shore. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

“Physically, she just said, ‘I’m struggling, I can’t,’ but she just said they’re looking her in the eye, and she just kept going and kept them together,” Mr Bresland said.<\/p>\n

“She’s an absolute hero as well. To keep those two children together and not give up is absolutely incredible.”<\/p>\n

The trio were pulled out of the water by a volunteer marine rescue vessel and returned to shore.<\/p>\n

They were assessed by St John WA paramedics before being conveyed to Busselton Health Campus.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands the family were discharged from the hospital over the weekend and visited the marine rescue crews involved to say thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 13-year-old boy has been hailed as a hero after swimming 4 kilometres through rough waters for help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[234205,234206,234204,43,91384,22653,44,234201,41844,234202,234203,41,39,42,40,45,221584],"class_list":["post-453604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-busselton-beach","tag-dunsborough-beach-safety","tag-geographe-bay-rescue","tag-headlines","tag-heroic","tag-marine-rescue","tag-news","tag-quindalup","tag-south-west-news","tag-superhuman-swim","tag-swept-out-to-sea","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wa-news","tag-water-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453604","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=453604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}