A decade has passed since Dudley Andrews risked his life rushing into the waves at a Far North beach to save two young cousins from drowning.
But the Northland dad says his experience isn’t outdated and is especially relevant as Kiwis flock to the coast this summer.
“The relevance is the fact that, unfortunately, people are still going to die at our beaches,” he said.
Northland’s drowning rate has improved in recent years, but the region has historically had some of the country’s worst drowning statistics.
Back in March 2015, a 37-year-old Andrews stopped two children from becoming statistics.
That day, Andrews had been parked up near the Waipapakauri Ramp at Ninety Mile Beach waiting for other family members to arrive.
As he did so, he watched a rip form in the surf.
His attention was caught by a girl, about 11 years old, running towards a car parked nearby, crying.
The girl headed towards him. He wound down the window and asked if she was alright.
“She just screamed ‘my brother’s drowning’,” Andrews said.
He beckoned the girl on to his truck before hurriedly driving down onto the beach, with her pointing the way.
Knee-deep in the surf was a woman, waves crashing into her. Close by was a man.
“I thought that was the brother,” Andrews said.
When he went to help her, she told him to go to the man caught in the dumping waves instead.
Andrews raced over to the man and pulled him from the surf. He helped him onto his side and asked if he was okay.
“And he goes, ‘I couldn’t hold onto them’.”
Andrews, confused, looked at the surf.
“I could see this head just bobbing in the waves, face up.”
The head belonged to a 5-year-old boy.
Andrews stood for a second, questioning what to do next.
“I thought, can I do this? Can I go and save this kid? What if I do? I might die. But what if I don’t? Then the kid might die. Can I live with myself? No, I can’t.”
That was that, Andrews said.
Andrews grabbed a bodyboard from his truck before rushing to the water’s edge, where he counted the sets of waves rolling in, looking for a lull.
The waves were nearly as high as Andrews’ 1.78m self.
“I was like ‘just breathe, just calm down. If you panic, you die. If you die, they die’.”
Andrews made it through the breaking waves to pass the first bar before arriving at the second, 100m away.
He spotted the boy fluttering on his back and swam to him. However, a wave crashed onto the youngster, pushing him under.
“I couldn’t see him,” Andrews said.
As the whitewash cleared, the boy “popped up”. Andrews immediately grabbed him and pulled him onto the bodyboard.
The boy had clung on so hard that Andrews’ board still has his fingernail marks.
“His pupils were wickedly dilated. He was understandably hysterical and freezing. He was going into shock.”
He put the bodyboard’s leash around the boy’s wrist and started the swim back to shore.
As a large set of waves rolled in Andrews turned his back toward the wave. The mass of water struck him on the back of his head.
“... It took me under.”
For a split second, he thought underwater was “really nice”.
“I could just inhale, and it’s really warm,” Andrews said.
That was the first time he had experienced a drowning sensation.
The boy’s leg brushed him in the water, snapping him out of his daze.
Andrews pulled himself to the surface. He saw the boy clinging to the bodyboard, shivering.
Again, they headed for shore.
Back on the beach, people pleaded with a surfer to head out with his board and help.
Behind the surfer paddling out, Andrews saw his dad and uncle on the shore pointing up the beach.
He looked over and saw a boy’s head poking out of the water about 50m away.
“My heart sank.”
Fifty metres was all that separated Andrews from the beach.
He made the tough call to take the boy he had to shore. He told the surfer to rescue the other.
Once on shore, the boy was given to family while Andrews paddled out again to help the kid’s 6-year-old cousin.
When Andrews got to the boy, the youngster was floating to keep himself alive.
“Had I been seconds later, he’d be dead.”
A wave broke over the boy’s head. He disappeared.
Andrews dove down, opened his eyes and saw the child.
He grabbed the boy’s fingers but they slipped through his own.
He dove as deep as his bodyboard leash let him, finding the child’s hair.
“I yanked him out of the water by his hair and put him on the bodyboard,” Andrews said.
He slapped the boy on the back. Water came out of the youngster’s ears and nose.
The surfer arrived, and the men pulled the shivering boy onto the surfboard.
They paddled parallel to shore, trying to find the safest path through the “aggressive” waves. Fortunately, a gap opened up.
They paddled through until they encountered a bar.
The exhausted trio planned to take a quick rest and wait for a lull to cross the bar safely but the boy started to go downhill.
His eyes would close and he would shake vigorously, Andrews said.
They had no choice but to press on.
“At one point, I turned around and a big freaking dumper was going to hit us. I didn’t have time to do anything,” Andrews said.
He turned his back and when the wave hit, he thought “we’re toast”.
The force knocked the air out of Andrews. His head smashed onto the sand.
“The next minute, I’m standing up and the boy falls into my arms.”
Divine intervention, he thought. The wave had also pushed them close to shore.
Andrews raced the boy to family waiting on the beach.
“I walked another 20 steps. I dropped to the ground and I started crying.”
Andrews received a Pride of NZ award for bravery and heroism for his actions that day, along with praise from police, local leaders and more.
The Kaitāia College teacher supports all the water safety messaging thrown at Kiwis every summer, believing that, while tired pleas, they still ring true.
Know how to spot a rip, know your limits and make sure if you’re headed to the coast, you have something with you that can float.
“Knowledge is power,” Andrews said.