PE teen drowns at Paradise Beach

NSRI warns parents to be alert after 16-year-old’s body recovered in free-dive search in lagoon

ATEENAGER drowned in a lagoon at Paradise Beach near Jeffreys Bay yesterday, prompting the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) to warn parents that children need to be supervised at all times when around water.

The 16-year-old from Port Elizabeth had‚ while playing beachball with friends‚ disappeared under water after slipping into a hole.

NSRI station commander Rieghard Janse van Rensburg said that six NSRI rescue swimmers and two Kouga municipal lifeguards had formed a sweeping-line‚ free-dive search.

The body of the teenager was recovered during the search.

“Paramedics declared the teenager deceased and the body was taken into the care of the Forensic Pathology Services‚” he said.

A child also drowned while swimming in the Wilderness Lagoon on Saturday.

The boy, believed to be aged about 10, was playing in shallow water before moving to a deeper section of the lagoon.

NSRI Wilderness duty coxswain Torsten Henschel said lifeguards had recovered the body of the boy.

Efforts by paramedics to resuscitate the child failed. Police have opened an inquest docket. Two more children almost drowned at the same lagoon on Friday.

NSRI Wilderness station commander Robert van Helsdingen said the children had been helped by bystanders.

“They were transported to hospital by ambulance. They are both expected to fully recover,” he said.

In another incident, a Grahamstown man nearly drowned while on his kayak at Kenton-on-Sea on Saturday.

NSRI Port Alfred station commander Juan Pretorius said people standing on the shore noticed the man was struggling.

“Eyewitnesses observed the man ... [but they] had lost sight of the man in the misty conditions,” he said.

The man was later found walking towards Kenton, dragging his kayak.

“It appears that in the 3m swells, the man had launched through the river mouth to paddle out to sea but was battered by the heavy surf,” Pretorius said.

He had been separated from his kayak and managed to swim ashore. His kayak was found later.

“The man was exhausted and we brought him back to Kenton-on-Sea,” he said.

“He is in his late 20s and has always paddled while on holiday in Kenton for the past 10 years, but he says he was completely taken by surprise by the rough sea conditions.”

On Saturday evening in East London, a father who swam out to help his son just off Nahoon Beach was rescued with his child by surfers.

NSRI East London station commander Geoff McGregor said: “The father grew tired and got into difficulty himself.”

A surfer first assisted the son and then went back to help the father.

“The father at this stage was suffering complete exhaustion and was no longer able to help himself,” he said.

Two more surfers jumped in to help save the father.

“The surfers – Brandon Flynn, Jordy Malherbe and Andre Malherbe – are commended for going to the assistance of the father and his son, and managing to rescue them successfully,” McGregor said.

The father and his son were checked by paramedics and required no further assistance.