VOICEOVER: This time on Bondi Rescue...
The biggest day of rescues in a decade.
Ow! Hold on.
Lifeguards are pushed to the limit.
We were doing rescue after rescue.
Agh!
Chappo's off!
They're drowning underneath the mat. [SCREAMING]
Shit.
# Take me back to the sweet times
# The hot nights
# Everything's gonna be alright
# In the summertime
# Baby, in the summertime
# That is where I'll be. #
It's the middle of Bondi's silly season.
Locals are on Christmas holidays,
tourists descend like seagulls on a chip.
The one week of the year
when Australia's busiest beach
gets even busier.
When we come into our busy period,
you're coming to that Christmas, New Year weeks.
It's just like someone just switches the switch and it's all on.
A crowd of 10,000 is usually considered a busy day at the office.
Today, lifeguards expect 10 times that many.
We're dealing with 100,000 people down here today, and...
..I think we've got six lifeguards.
Chappo's comrades in arms
are young gun, Chase...
..former swimming champion, Wally,
Mitch, the newbie...
..the Italian Stallion, Mario...
..Kiwi Harrison keeping watch in the tower,
and the veteran, Hoppo.
The conditions on this day is probably the worst that we can get
because it's about two-three-foot surf.
It's an east swell which makes the Bay of Bondi move a lot of water
moving, so the rips are prominent.
Everything lined up to being a very busy day.
Busy is an understatement.
It's only 11am and lifeguards have already hauled in 20 swimmers.
More rescues than all of last week.
Chase has pulled in a dozen on the jet ski.
Wally is clocking up his eighth board rescue.
The notorious Backpackers Rip is playing havoc.
Chappo and Mitch try to corral swimmers to a safer spot.
Hey! No swimming.
Everyone, out of the water.
These kids are getting into trouble. This is what happens, everyone.
But it's too late.
Two teenage boys have been caught in the strong current,
and they're being swept out to sea.
MAN: They'd probably been swimming at the head of the rip
and then just started getting sucked out.
The protocol is you go to the further person out.
He was struggling. He was going under.
As I got him on the board,
I turned around and his mate with the blue rashie
was starting to drift,
which was concerning.
Mitch can't reach the second swimmer
without risking the life of his patient.
Then Chase comes over with the jet skim
whips around and picks him up.
This double rescue brings the tally to 24,
and Mitch's first today.
Good start to the day.
Good priming. [LAUGHS]
These kids nearly drowned so don't swim here, swim up there.
Try to tell everyone not to swim there
because that'll happen to everybody.
Yeah, the current.
School, might be out for summer, but the friends from Western Sydney
have learned a valuable lesson.
I was trying to help him and then I ended up getting caught as well,
so I was unfortunate.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
Thank you.
It happens quite regularly down here that you see someone start
getting taken out to sea, and their mate who can't swim either,
will go after them and then next thing you know,
they're both there holding each other up.
They jumped in front of a 'no swimming' sign,
so it's probably not ideal, but it's so busy that you...you wouldn't
even see the signs.
Like, look how many people are down here, it's nuts.
With just one season under his belt, 33-year-old Mitch
is a relative rookie.
Yeah, I grew up locally over in Bronte.
I was a plumber.
Just got sick of my Monday to Friday gig
and just thought I'd do something different.
Started lifeguarding about 18 months ago.
It's been challenging for sure.
As conditions worsen at the south end...
..Mitch is about to face the biggest challenge of his brief career.
I just happened to have looked towards the rip,
and I saw a couple of heads start drifting off the bank.
The father holding up his son with one hand.
His head was submerged and he was waving with his other hand,
so he was underwater that whole time I paddled out.
His head never broke the surface.
The dad only had seconds.
[BLEEP]
I just tried to comfort them, relax them.
The patients don't have the strength to climb on the board.
And they're drifting further from shore.
And in that south end the rip pulls quite hard out to see.
And we did just start to go further and further out.
As waves continue to swamp them,
the young boy starts to panic.
[BOY SHRIEKS]
Mitch has saved a father and son seconds from drowning
at Bondi's south corner.
Now he's struggling to keep the boy calm.
The kid was terrified.
He was so young, especially with the waves coming over as well.
It would have been a lot to deal with.
If the terrified boy can just hold on,
more help is on the way.
Mario came down and then the clubbie ski was on duty as well.
The father got on the clubbie ski
and the son on the ski with Mario, and that was handy.
That saved the day.
As frantic family members watch on,
first the son, then the father
make it safely back to the beach.
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]
Ishwar and his family are visiting from Melbourne.
It's a beach day they'll never forget.
I would have to put that as, yeah, the most satisfying rescue I've done
in terms of how close it was to being a proper disaster.
It's a good feeling to know you've saved someone's life.
It feels pretty cool.
By lunchtime, the rescue count has reached 50.
Chilled beachgoers are oblivious to the chaos around them.
Lots of swimming, lots of swimming and more swimming.
The beach is getting very dangerous this afternoon.
If you are going to go for a swim,
just head up to the red and yellow flags
at the northern end of the beach.
Chappo pulled between 50 and 100 rescues today.
I reckon we probably hit our 70 mark.
So still a few hours to go and I reckon we might get a bit busier,
so I reckon he's nailed it on the head today.
Too dangerous current this time, up there.
Midafternoon, Chappo is directing traffic at Backpackers.
No, buddy, go over there.
Can you go back in?
Very dangerous.
Or is it more like herding cats?
Lay down. Lay, lay, lay!
No, other way! Agh!
Move up there. Walk.
Matey, I just rescued you.
I just rescued you.
It was a very unique day. Like, you don't do them any busier.
Up further.
Backpackers was just on fire.
It was just ferocious.
And there was not a lot of niceties going on.
There's a strong rip here, so move, walk.
No, don't nod. Move.
No, no, no, no. You're a lot heavier than her. Go!
Rescue after rescue after rescue.
On a day this busy tragedy can strike in a heartbeat.
Chappo spots three children struggling in the powerful rip.
Hey, kids, kids, kids!
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Are you alright?
I don't know how old these kids were.
Like, they could have been seven, eight and nine, all non-swimmers.
They fall into a howling rip, and I'm on the jet ski.
There's three or four in the water at Backies.
Normally you just flick the mat so they can climb up on the jet ski,
but they're holding their sister up to me.
So I put her in between my legs, which is just out of the ordinary.
Sit here.
The other two kids were under the mat.
Yes, you can. Where is she? [SHRIEKING]
They're drowning underneath the mat.
Chappo has to make a split second decision.
Oh! Chappo's off!
I had no other option except to bail.
The child now sits alone on a machine weighing 200kg.
I've never done that before in my life.
I was just thinking, "If this little girl falls off,
"then she could drown."
The engine's still going, so it idles and it can take off,
away from you.
So, I've got to get them on the mat quickly.
On the mat.
Climb over the kids, back onto the jet ski
and get them to shore safely.
[ENGINE REVS]
It was the only rescue in a long, long, long time that I've actually
thought, "Turns to shit, and one of them dies."
That's basically as close
as I've ever had that happen to me, I reckon.
Off, dudes.
Could have ended pretty badly.
Midafternoon, more than 30,000 people are crammed onto the beach.
Veteran lifeguard Hoppo decides to pull out a lifeguard technique
he hasn't used since Nirvana were the next big thing.
It's got so busy, in summer, on Backpackers'.
I'm sitting on the rescue board, waiting to go in for a rescue,
so, yeah, it's brought me back to the '90s,
the old school, when I first started.
Even with Hoppo in their midst,
the crowd ignores the warnings.
Everyone, it's just been said, over and over.
No swimming here.
And the rescue tally is reaching record proportions.
Here you go, boys. Off you go.
We're doing rescue after rescue.
People aren't listening to us.
The riffs, now, are pulling really hard.
It's quite dangerous for people who don't know what they're doing.
There's a little channel enclosed, and there's little kids
getting in there.
And if they just get taken, they'll go real quick into this rip.
MAN: Up here! Hoppo!
Moments later, Hoppo's fears are realised.
Two young girls are swept off a sand bank.
A radio chap had to come in to pick them up,
and when he came in, they physically couldn't pull themselves
up on the sled.
Exact same thing happened.
Both went under, I didn't hesitate.
Bang! Straight in the water.
Let the jet ski go.
Popeye.
Hoppo is off the ski.
This time the unmanned jet ski is in the shore break
and heading straight for swimmers.
Shit.
Bondi lifeguards are racking up a record number of rescues.
Chappo has dived off the jet ski again...
Shit.
..to save two girls in Backpackers' Rip.
Shit!
The unmanned jet ski heads straight for swimmers.
The jet ski's on its own, now, just floating around in the rip,
and hoping it doesn't end up on the sandbank where it could
potentially hit someone.
But I need to paddle fast and help Chappo put them
on the rescue board to bring them back to shore.
At that time, I didn't care what was going to happen
to the jet ski. It wasn't in the flagged area.
I had to rescue these two kids.
I'm right. Hang on.
Funnily enough, because the rip was so strong,
jet ski didn't wash in.
Just stayed there.
Hang on.
For a driver to jump off the jet ski and grab someone is very, very rare.
I mean, I've only seen it not even a handful of times
in my whole lifeguard career,
and to happen twice in one day is just unbelievable.
The girls are finally safe but still distressed.
So, originally they said that the mother was up north,
and I thought, "It's a long way to go."
That's a long way from where you were swimming, though.
Did you walk all the way down there?
Huh?
So, the issue I have now
is I'm stuck with these two little girls,
trying to find the mother.
So, it's eyes off the water.
The time there, looking for parents,
it could cost someone else's life.
They nearly were going under,
and then can't find the parents anywhere.
Well, there only young kids.
Further south, Chappo spots a woman frantically searching the surf.
Hey, what do your kids look like?
Two girls?
Yeah, she was freaking out, saying, "I've lost my kids.
"I've lost my kids."
No, they're alright. They're OK.
They're... Hey, sweetheart.
Hey. I've just rescued them. They're safe.
They're OK. Hey. Go and see the lifeguards on the beach.
Just here.
Hey, Hops, where are those two girls that just got rescued?
I think her mum's here.
I've got them here with me.
Mummy!
We just rescued them.
Just got them. They were nearly under.
You've got to take note of them.
Both of her daughters could have been dead.
[GIRL SOBS]
You start getting a bit frustrated and angry
because it would have been, then, they'd blame us
for not saving the kids.
But it's the parents' responsibility to be looking after their own kids.
When you've got busy days like that, and you've got parents
not watching kids, and there's people constantly getting pulled
into the rips, it's hard to control your emotions,
but we're here every day.
We know the conditions.
These people are coming maybe once in a lifetime to Bondi,
so we need to be sympathetic, at the same time,
trying to get our point across that they understand
the dangers of what they've just been involved with.
As the shadows lengthen, so does the rescue tally.
And there are still thousands on the beach.
It's chaotic. It's the busiest day I've worked in years.
The beach is starting to thin out a bit, but really concerned.
We'll be out of here in about 50 minutes.
The problem is going to be is when we pack up and go home.
At 7:00, we finish.
These people are going to keep going in the water.
You know, it's light till 8:00, 8:30.
So, we've just got to hope that no-one drowns after hours.
Just when lifeguards think the end is in sight,
Chase radios in.
North to Central.
[ALARM BLARES]
After more than 100 rescues in a single day,
a confirmed shark sighting has lifeguards scrambling
to clear the water.
This is to Bondi lifeguards.
Just so you know, we've had a report of a shark.
Yeah. Attention, everyone. We need everyone to leave the water.
A local guy said he saw a pretty big shark.
This is the time of the night where they're bringing in
the schools of fish.
They're chasing them to have a feed.
Look, we didn't need that at the end of the day,
but we were getting punches thrown at us all day.
What's another one?
Everyone just leave the water.
If everyone could just come back to shore.
The shark has done lifeguards a favour.
With swimmers out of the water, Hoppo and his exhausted team
can finally relax,
after clocking up a month's worth of rescues
in a single day.
It would have been up around the 120 rescues for the day.
It was probably the busiest day I've worked for, you know,
10 years plus.
Even the most experienced lifeguards are shattered.
How many rescues do you reckon we did?
I must have done 50 in Backpackers'.
Easy.
On days like that, it's only really the six guys who go through it
that really understand the intensity of what just went down.
Oh, far out, man.
That was just one of the busiest days I've ever had.
MAN: It's the worst.
Anyway.
That was gnarly.
Somebody should have drowned that day.
You know, I walked away from that a little bit rattled,
but also super proud of what everyone did for such a long,
intense period of time.
WOMAN: Three, two, one!
[CHEERING]
What a day. That's what we do on the good days. Memorable.
Memorable day.
Nice one, boys! There you go.
There we go.