Northland surfer rides out tsunami

"Hi, Mum, I'm alive - just, love ya."
That's the laconic email Dargaville surfer Corey Thompson sent after he and six other surfers  paddled out to sea to escape last week's Samoan tsunami.
A week later members of his family are still shaken from the knowledge of  how close they had come to losing Corey.
It is not the first time the 29-year-old building contractor has escaped a major catastrophe. Mr Thompson who  lives in Australia, survived  bombings in Bali  and a hostel fire in the Australian outback, but he told his mother the tsunami had  been the closest call of them all.
 Last Wednesday  Corey had been part of a group of six that had taken a boat to surf the best waves on  a reef, about 800m off the beach in front of the Sinalei resort on South Upolu Island.
When the undersea earthquake struck they had  been sitting on their boards in the water. 
After the sea had surged back four times the boatman had yelled to them to paddle as fast as they could out to sea where they had waited for about an hour for the ocean to settle.
Back in Dargaville his parents, Karl and Lynley Thompson, unaware their son was in Samoa, were oblivious to their youngest son's predicament. "I was at a meeting when I heard the news and remember saying something like, 'My son is meant to be going to Samoa next week'," Mrs Thompson said. Later that morning the family had received a call that had rocked them to the core.
 Mrs Thompson said  the call had come from Johnny Duder, a  family friend holidaying in Samoa, saying he had spoken to Corey on the beach that morning (of the tsunami). He had said Corey had left on a boat for the reef and hadn't been seen since.
"It was a terrible shock, our world just turned upside-down." she said.
Troy, her older son  had contacted the New Zealand High Commission and listed Corey as missing. A further phone call from Mr Duder had revealed all six men on the boat had returned to shore, but Corey's whereabouts was still unknown.
The  chaos and  poor communication had made it difficult.
Fifteen hours later the email had arrived.
"I still wake at night thinking, 'What if ...?' and still get really emotional about the whole ordeal," said Mrs Thompson. Corey told his mother following the shake the sea had started to bubble and within minutes  had begun to surge back. "He said it looked like someone had pulled the plug on the ocean as the water began to disappear from the reef before the 'waterfall-like' rush back to land.  They could see their boat being 'rag-dolled' around on the reef."
 When the men had recovered the boat they had been able to start it, but had had difficulty pulling the anchor up because  coral had become lodged around it. She said as they had got closer to land they could see the devastation. "There was nothing left of his fale (hut) where he had been staying. Everything had gone. All he had was the clothes he stood up in and his board."
The New Zealand High Commission had arranged for Corey to  room with a Wellington couple for a couple of nights and then he was moved to another room with a couple from Great Barrier before his insurance company arranged a flight back home last Sunday evening.
"I am still getting over it," said Mrs Thompson "I am so pleased we had people  there that we knew. Johnny was wonderful, keeping us informed as best he could."