"It was a real credit to her because other paddlers were going past in a world of pain and hadn't spotted him but she still had her wits about her. "It was pretty cool to see."
The surges over the rocks were causing havoc and Bester was preparing to dive in with a tube to assist when the man was finally coaxed off the rocks, Weston said.
"They took him nearly a kilometre back to shore before assessing him and leaving him to think about his narrow escape."
Bester finished the Mount Monster endurance race in 3h, 24m, 5sec. She was 72nd overall and 10th in the under-19 women's division. She also received an award for the Spirit of the Mount Monster.
It's not the first rescue the South African-born teen has been involved with — three years ago, as a newly-qualified 14-year-old lifeguard, she swam out to rescue a man whose inflatable chair had blown out to sea.
She celebrated yesterday's effort with an icecream.
"It was pretty hard — I had cramps and I'd been a bit sick beforehand, plus the surf was pretty epic and I really struggled to get out on the ski.
"But I just knew it was the right thing to do, to help the guy out, and I definitely wasn't worried about my finishing time. I was pretty stoked and just glad that he got out all right."