Miracle rescue: How Ava kept dad alive
Shon Turfrey hung on when he was swept out to sea because he couldn’t bear to leave his 5-year-old daughter fatherless.
Napier surfer Shon Turfrey was 50 to 100 metres out to sea when he first realised he was in serious trouble. The stretch of water between him and the coast was growing rapidly, his arms were tired and, as fatigue kicked in, the thought of a shark propelling towards him played on his mind.
As the builder endured a sevenhour battle for survival in the choppy waters he tried to focus on what was important — getting home to see his 5-year-old daughter.
The strong outgoing tide and prevailing winds would eventually force Turfrey 8km out to sea.
The week leading up to his misadventure on September 9 had been marred by stormy weather and Turfrey had been diligently monitoring surf reports.
Storms bring huge swells and Turfrey could barely sleep in anticipation of his planned morning surf.
At the Tukituki River mouth, the bar creates good surf conditions as water charges through the river, Turfrey told the Herald.
But within a short couple of hours it could deteriorate to impossible conditions, so the window of opportunity was narrow, he added.
Walking along Napier's Marine Parade that morning he could see the heavy waves crashing along the coast.
“So I messaged my mate and said, ‘it's going to be on, it's going to be big'.”
He headed out into the water in Haumoana near the Tukituki River mouth but was caught along the inside of the bar.
Turfrey used duck-dives to cut through the swell but was soon pushed hundreds of metres away from where he wanted to be.
He tried to head back towards the break but it already seemed a long way off, he said.
“I was 50 to 100 metres off the shoreline to start with and realised that even that close, I couldn't get
back in.” The water was relentlessly drawing away from the coast.
“It’s impossible to get back to shore like this. My arms can only do so much,” he recalled.
“There were choppy offshore winds, snow up on the ranges. It was an all-round s*** day.”
Turfrey knew he was in serious trouble and needed to conserve energy. But as the shoreline stretched away from him all the mind games started to sink in.
He knew it would be a long time before anyone even realised he was missing, and there was no guarantee his mate would be trying to join him in those conditions.
“There were all those things running through my mind, my partner — she thought I was at another break,” Turfrey said.
“I’m a long, long way at sea at this time. The horizon is pretty hazy.
“I still somehow, had a little bit of comedy in me, because I was thinking ‘what’s the chances of a f***ing shark rolling in right now’ and here I am bobbing up and down on a piece of polystyrene.”
Staring back on an “amazing view”, there were moments of disbelief about how quickly it had all gone so wrong: “How the hell have I ended
What’s the chances of a shark rolling in right now and here I am bobbing up and down on a piece of polystyrene. Shon Turfrey
up out here?” But Turfrey was determined to survive for his 5-year-old daughter Ava.
“Getting back to my daughter was huge. She’s only 5, she’s only brandnew.” For her to suddenly not have her dad like that, that would not be fair, he said.
Due to saltwater and glare off the the water his vision deteriorated.
By 10.30am, Turfrey’s friend Dylan Williams grew worried and called the police.
“When I first heard the helicopter, I couldn’t see it, that’s how far out I was,” Turfrey said. It was surreal when rescuers finally found him.
“They don’t bring people back from something like that normally,” Turfrey said. “Normally, its search and recovery, not search and rescue.”
Mildly hypothermic and his vision still blurred, Turfrey said he could not recognise his partner until she was standing right in front of him, about to hug him. “She was petrified. She had obviously gone through quite an ordeal not knowing if she was going to be able to see me.”
But Turfrey said the experience had not put him off surfing.
“Even if you are out with other people you can get in trouble pretty quickly. You can’t push an off button, or you can’t crawl to the side and have a rest. It’s game on.”