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A 13-year-old boy has been hailed a hero after swimming through choppy waters ‘like a superhuman’ to save his family who had been swept out to sea.
Austin Appelbee was dragged out to sea with his mum Joanne and two siblings Beau and Grace while they were swimming in Quidalup, south-west Australia.
The family were on holiday and had set out on a kayak and inflatable paddleboards in what seemed to be calm conditions on Friday morning.
But the sea soon became rough, flipping their kayak which began to sink.
They were left with no choice but to send Austin, who failed his swimming test that morning, to try to reach help.
In the poor sea conditions, he swam the equivalent of two swimming marathons in four hours – despite previously failing his swimming test.
Joanne told ABC News: ‘One of the hardest decisions I ever had to make was to say to Austin “try and get to shore and get some help, this could get really serious really quickly”. I knew he was the strongest and he could do it.
Austin swam the equivalent of two marathons as he tried to save his family (Picture: ABC/AP)
‘I would have never went because I wouldn’t have left the kids at sea, so I had to send somebody.’
Austin had to ditch both his kayak and his lifejacket which was making swimming more difficult to attempt the journey back to shore.
He said: ‘The waves are massive and I have no life jacket on … I just kept thinking “just keep swimming, just keep swimming”.’
Austin said he thought of happy things to get through the ordeal, including singing the Thomas the Tank Engine theme.
Therese Colman, who lives in the area, told Metro: ‘Once you hit those waters it’s a game-changer.
‘Athletes train for months, even years, to participate in events like the Busselton Jetty Swim, and this teen swam that same distance, but in much deeper and stronger currents.
Austin (right) with his mum Joanne, brother Beau and sister Grace (Picture: AP/ABC)
‘He is the talk of the town at the moment and his efforts have been praised far and wide.
‘It’s funny how just that morning, he completed his last day of swimming lessons and failed his stage! Surely they will amend that now!’
Austin eventually reached land and found a phone to call emergency services, before passing out from exhaustion.
He was later taken to hospital where he later woke up, still unaware of what had happened to his family.
WA Water Police, a rescue helicopter and Naturaliste Marine Rescue were all dispatched to locate the family, who had spent up to 10 hours in the water.
They were located 14km offshore ‘cold, shaking and mentally-preparing to die’, with one of their children, Beau, losing feeling in his legs.
Joanne said: ‘As the sun went down, I thought something’s gone terribly wrong here and my fear was that [Austin] didn’t make it.
‘Then as it got darker, yeah, I thought there was no one coming to save us.
‘My Mum is in Ireland … I remember looking up at the sky going “Mum if you can hear me, just light that holy candle for me”.’
Five minutes before they were rescued a huge wave had hit the trio, which caused the two children to start floating away from their mum.
But as the rescue boat approached, they were reunited. But there was still no knowledge of what had happened to Austin who was still in hospital.
He said: ‘I thought they were dead. I had a lot of guilt in my heart. I thought “Oh man I wasn’t fast enough”.’
Austin is now on crutches as his legs are too sore to walk on, while the rest of the family have been left with blistering and bruising.
Joanne said: ‘I just hope that [the experience] doesn’t come back later on to hit them harder than what it should.
‘I have three babies. All three of them made it. That was all that mattered.’
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