It was right man, right place, right time as Napier Aquahawks swimmer Hadlee Dyer rescued fellow 13-year-old Jackson Ranapiri at remote Waipatiki Beach last week.
Jackson is back home in Bay View, where the boys live a few hundred metres apart, but grateful mum Lisa Ranapiri says but for Hadlee's quick reaction it could have much different.
She says that watching from the shore, a moment's fun became a moment's horror as her son copped a stunning blow from a wave and disappeared.
Hadlee had the "foresight" to grab Jackson's singlet and pull him up, although struggling to support the possibly-concussed boy in "significant" waves in waist-deep water.
Others helped get him on to a girl's boogie board, and other family members were joined by patrol members as the boy was taken ashore, where he quickly recovered.