‘I was so weak I thought I’d die’

Hero leaps into rough seas in attempt to rescue boy who fell to his death off seaside wharf. By Amanda Saxton.

A man who tried to save a drowning boy on a North Auckland beach yesterday says he thought he would also die in the water.

Bernard Riedl, 28, dived off the Torpedo Bay wharf in his underwear after the five-year-old fell into the sea and he heard a man yell ‘‘jump’’.

The boy had been on a family excursion at the time, and was unable to be revived by emergency services when he was pulled from the water around 3.15pm.

Riedl said he didn’t see the family, but heard the boy’s mother screaming.

‘‘It was all I could hear ... the most horrible screams’’, he told Sunday News last night from his home in Bayswater.

He said the water was choppy and that the boy had been ‘‘really really struggling’’ to keep afloat.

‘‘I swam to him and he put his hands around my neck, hanging on for dear life,’’ he said.

‘‘But it was so rough, and I could feel myself drowning. I was trying to make sure both of us could get air. I’d suck in water, but had to keep going. I tried lying on my back, but at that point he detached. I was so weak by that point that I couldn’t do anything and I thought I was going to die.’’

Riedl said he was in the water for maybe 10 minutes, before getting washed near the shore. He dragged himself out of the water and walked back to the wharf, where he gave a statement to police. ‘‘I thought someone would come and help us, I was waiting for help but no one came,’’ he said.

An onlooker told him the boy had been recovered by the coastguard, but that he didn’t know if the child was alive or dead.

When Riedl knew for sure the boy he’d tried to save had died, he said he felt ‘‘winded’’.

‘‘My adrenaline had been rushing, but not enough to save the boy,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ll always feel bad about that.’’

Reidl had returned from a stint teaching English in Russia just three weeks prior to the drowning.

He said he believed the boy was Chinese, as police had been asking for Mandarin translators at the scene.

But it was so rough, and I could feel myself drowning. I was trying to make sure both of us could get air.’ BERNARD RIEDL