Unicycling champ Christian Huriwai nearly drowns

Only "sheer guts" saved street unicycling world champion Christian Huriwai from drowning off a Kaipara Coast beach yesterday, says the police officer who crouched beside him for an hour as he vomited seawater.

Huriwai, of Kaikohe, was caught in a rip about 8am while swimming with a friend off the remote Third Stream campsite, about 14km south of the beachside holiday community of Glinks Gully.

His friend tried to help Huriwai, but had to let him go because he could not pull them both back to shore.

However, Huriwai eventually managed to make his own way back but collapsed unconscious on the beach.

There is no road access to the campsite, so a 4WD owner drove the unconscious Huriwai and his friend along the beach to Glinks Gully.

One of the few baches at Glinks Gully with a telephone line is owned by the Juretich family. Fortunately Victor Juretich, a former Dargaville St John Ambulance superintendent, and his friend Carl Fowlie, an Otahuhu police constable, were both staying at the bach. As they phoned for help, the men nursed Huriwai back to consciousness.

When he eventually came round he began vomiting repeatedly. The two men helped Huriwai for an hour, putting him in the recovery position, checking his pulse and encouraging him, until an ambulance arrived.

Fowlie said Huriwai was so exhausted he could not move.

"It was just sheer guts, I think," Fowlie said. "He gave everything to come back in. I think he just used every muscle in his body. He was pretty sore."

Huriwai's friend was also in shock and distraught that he had had to let Huriwai go while they were in the water.

Huriwai, who took the world champion unicycling title in Wellington two years ago, was recovering at his mother's house last night.