At sunset, I made my peace, certain I was going to die...then I heard the helicopter
Surfer shares the ‘indescribable’ moment rescuers found him in icy waters after 32 hours adrift
A SURFER who was dragged out to sea during a terrifying 32-hour ordeal has revealed that he ‘made peace’ with dying before being plucked from the water by a helicopter crew in a dramatic rescue operation.
Matthew Bryce, 23, was found clinging to his yellow surfboard 13 miles off the coast after being swept into the treacherous waters of the North Channel, off the Kintyre peninsula.
Severely dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia, he had been drifting for a day and a half before being spotted by a Coastguard helicopter crew around 7.30pm on Monday.
Closer to Northern Ireland than his homeland, the 22-year-old was taken to Belfast’s Ulster Hospital, where he was reunited with his parents John, 53, and Isabella, 54.
The exhausted survivor has now pledged to give up the sport he loved – and said he owes his life to the crew who found him.
Speaking from his hospital bed yesterday, the distraught surfer – whose face is blistered and red from exposure to the elements – tearfully said: ‘I was thinking I was going to die. I was convinced entirely. I knew I had maybe three hours and didn’t think I would see the sunrise, so I was watching the sunset and pretty much made peace with it all.
‘Then I heard a helicopter. It flew right over me, so I jumped off my board and started waving it.
‘I thought it had missed me, then it turned round and when I saw them turn, it’s indescribable.
‘It’s the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. I owe them my life. I can’t thank them enough.’
Mr Bryce, from Airdrie, Lanarkshire, was last seen at 9am on Sunday, setting off to surf at Westport Beach near Machrihanish, Argyll. It is believed he suffered cramp, which left him unable to fight the wind and currents that swept him miles out to sea.
Mr Bryce had been due to attend a family dinner in Inveraray, Argyll, that day. His family raised the alarm the next morning when he failed to get in contact overnight. Coastguards said that because of the amount of time Mr Bryce had spent in the water before the alert was raised on Monday, they had to rely on wind and tidal data to focus the search.
They could narrow it down only to an area of 269 square miles between Islay and Rathlin Island, off County Antrim.
RNLI lifeboats from Red Bay, near Cushendall, County Antrim, joined those from Kintyre and the Inner Hebridean islands of Islay and Gigha, while a search and rescue helicopter was dispatched from Prestwick, Ayrshire.
Recalling the moment he knew he was in trouble, Mr Bryce said: ‘The current changes and I can’t do anything, and all this time the wind is pushing me further and further out. Then night fell.’
When asked to describe what it was like to be in the water alone in the dark, and to be tired, he told the BBC: ‘Isolated. It was incredibly lonely and quiet. It was all pretty terrible but the night was the worst, sitting there with the fishing boats in the distance, because I shouted for the fishing boats and they didn’t hear me and they just sailed off.
‘I was thinking I was going to die. I didn’t think I was going to see the sunrise.
‘Throughout the night the priority was keeping my head dry and just staying on the board, so as I was passing out I had been propping my head up on the board to keep my head out of the water, and when I was dropping out I was catching myself before my head hit the water.’
On Monday, after searching for five hours, a Coastguard crew returning from refuelling saw a glint on the water that turned out to be Mr Bryce’s surfboard.
Incredible footage taken by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency shows the moment the surfer was winched from the water into a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter.
A Belfast Coastguard spokesman said: ‘The crew never give up hope of finding someone alive during a search, but after so long in the water, realistically they were expecting to recover a body.
‘So when Matthew was spotted
‘I owe them my life’
alive, conscious and waving, they couldn’t believe it.
‘Matthew didn’t really say very much when he was pulled on board, he was just completely relieved to be out of the water.’
Only 15 minutes later the surfer was at Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast, before being transferred across the city to the ward in Ulster Hospital where he has spent the past three nights.
The nurses had a whipround to buy him pyjamas and a toothbrush before his parents arrived.
A general surgeon who works at the hospital said Mr Bryce is likely to be on antibiotics to combat any infection, and IV fluids to reverse any potential kidney damage brought on by dehydration and lack of food.
In a statement earlier this week Mr Bryce said: ‘I want to thank staff here at the Ulster Hospital who, together with the rescue services, saved my life. They are all heroes.’
His father John and mother Isabella – who have two other children, Paul, 26, and Claire, 20 – told of the moment they received the call telling them their son was alive and safe.
Mr Bryce Sr said: ‘You have this elation, this high, then 20 minutes later you crash back down because you don’t know what state he’s in or how unwell he is.
‘Isabella is actually steadier than I am, but she’s been given a
‘I was crying my eyes out’
24-hour embargo, then she has to stop crying.’
Mrs Bryce said: ‘I was just praying he’d be fine and found alive.’
Mr Bryce Sr said the family had been expecting to receive a call informing them the surfer was dead, and he had planned how to travel to Campbeltown, Argyll, to identify his son’s body.
He burst into tears when he heard the miraculous news that his boy was alive.
Fighting back tears, he said: ‘I think it’s the worse news possible but it’s the police inspector and all he said is, “Matthew has been found alive”.
‘I was outside crying my eyes out. Isabella and Paul were inside and they had thought we’d received the worst news possible – I had to run in and tell them he was still alive.’
Mr Bryce’s surfboard was later picked up by a lifeboat and is now being kept at the Campbeltown lifeboat station, ready to be reunited with its owner.
But when asked if he planned to go back into the water, Mr Bryce said: ‘I think we’ll find a good use for it [the surfboard], maybe as starter fuel.’ Asked if he was finished with surfing, he replied: ‘I think so. I can’t do that again.’
Coastguard search and rescue captain Andrew Pilliner this week credited Mr Bryce’s thick neoprene wetsuit, fitness level, and ‘presence of mind’ in staying on his board with saving his life.
Other experts agreed he survived because he was prepared.
Dawn Petrie, of the Belfast Coastguard operations centre, said: ‘He was extremely lucky. He was wearing the right equipment, had a very thick neoprene wetsuit on and did the right thing by staying with his surfboard.’
Henry Weaver, RNLI in Scotland spokesman, said there were key safety rules and Mr Bryce had heeded them all.
Mr Weaver added: ‘Make sure you are kitted out in the appropriate suit. Manufacturers have information on their websites about what suits should be worn at what time of year. Matthew was in a thick neoprene one that undoubtedly helped save his life.
‘The second key thing to do if you get into trouble is to hold on to your board – stay with it. It keeps you afloat, conserves energy and you are making yourself a bigger target for anyone searching.’