Teen Lifeguard Rescues 9 Year Old

Teen Lifeguard, Harry Higate, Rescued 9 Year Old With Inflatable Dolphin

9-year-old Ryan Supple can swim yet another day, thanks to teen lifeguard Harry Higate Royce, Ryan was rescued and reunited with his mother on the beach.

17-year-old Harry spotted the struggling youngster as he drifted further from Joss Bay beach at around 2pm on Tuesday 26 July 2016.

A footage of the successful rescue shows the moment that the teen lifeguard finds the nine-year-old terrified and too exhausted to swim back to shore on the back of an inflatable plastic dolphin. The video which was released by Royal National Lifeboat Institution in a bid to warn people about the dangers of swimming at sea shows Harry giving the struggling youngster an extra float as he pulled him back towards the shore where his mother was waiting for him.

Harry had kept an eye on the boy after concerns grew that he would be swept outside the red and yellow flagged zone, which is the designated area for swimmers visiting lifeguarded beaches.

Commenting on the rescue, RNLI Lifeguard Supervisor, Ben Detheridge said “Because of the direction of the wind, the boy would have eventually been blown towards the chalk reed just north of the bay. This means he would have had to clamber across a slippery, uneven reef to get back to the sandy shore, which could have led to further challenges for the lifeguards.”

Detheridge added that the situation could have been much worse if the beach hadn’t been manned by lifeguards “The boy and his family did the right thing by coming to a lifeguarded beach and swimming between the red and yellow flags to enjoy their day at the seaside. However, the conditions of the sea are ever-changing and unpredictable which can quickly lead even the most experienced swimmers into a difficult situation.”
The boy’s mother, Claire Supple, grateful for the assistance of the lifeguard said: “if it wasn’t for them, who knows what could have happened?”

Ryan Supple’s rescue comes after a 19-year-old Brazilian tourist Gustavo Silva Da Cruz died in the water at Camber Sands in East Sussex on Sunday afternoon. Gustavo was one of three men who got into difficulty swimming at the popular beach.╚

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