Honours for heroic police surf rescue

By John Cousins
The rough surf was full of heroes when 57-year-old Auckland woman Sally Mitchell felt life slipping away as she and her daughter got caught in a rip at Papamoa last summer.
Two of the heroes, Papamoa police constables Steven Hales and Paul Horler, were yesterday honoured with Royal Humane Society Certificates of Merit.Their role in saving Mrs Mitchell from certain death and dragging two others from the surf who were close to exhaustion was acknowledged in a special Tauranga City Council ceremony.
Mrs Mitchell, her daughter Lissa and a friend Bridget Rogers were enjoying a swim in front of their rented house at Karewa Parade on February 8 when, barely realising what was happening, they got sucked out in a rip.
Already tired from a long swim in the surf, Mrs Mitchell struck difficulties very quickly when she tried to get back to shore.
It was a rough surf and she kept on getting pushed under by a second row of breakers off shore.
Recalling events from her Albany home today, Mrs Mitchell remembered calling out to her daughter that she could not make it.
"I told her to save herself - I thought we would both be history."
But Lissa screamed at Mrs Rogers on a boogie board to keep trying to get back to shore and she swam across to her mother and supported her.
"She was the one that saved me to start with."
The next phase in the rescue happened when Mrs Rogers luckily caught a wave and managed to clamber to shore. She ran to the nearest house where Taupo doctor David Meuli was holidaying.
While she phoned 111, Dr Meuli grabbed the boogie board and swam out to the mother and daughter.
By the time the two constables arrived, the little clump of bodies clinging to the boogie board were 150m off shore. Mr Hales swam out and tried without success to tow them back to shore. Mr Horler then arrived with a police issue rescue tube and attached the tube to Mrs Mitchell, who was by then near collapse, and towed her to shore.
He swam out again to where Mr Horler was towing the others back to the beach and attached the tube to Dr Meuli, who was also exhausted. He towed him back through the rip to the beach.
Mr Hales and Lissa reached the shore safely soon after.
Mrs Mitchell recalled getting overwhelmed by a weird feeling of calm and wanting to give up, but her daughter kept yelling "breathe, breathe, breathe" and held her mother to the boogie board. "I am very lucky to be alive."
Dr Meuli is to be honoured with a Royal Humane Society bronze medal.
The citation for the two police constables said that by their actions in the rescue, they placed themselves at risk."They clearly averted at least one fatality, and ultimately secured the safety of all three in the water."
The two constables were humble about their honours yesterday. Did they feel like heroes?
"Not really, anyone would have done the same." Mr Horler said. "The hero was the guy that went out there by himself. They would have been goners if he had not done that."