Inflatable searches in 'huge' surf on Cornish coastBude's D class lifeboat often has to launch through heavy surf, but a service on 3 July in exceptional conditions has brought the helmsman Paddy Frost and crew members Jonathan Ball, Keith Marshall and Kevin Dunster special thanks in a letter from the chief of operations.

A call from Hartland Coastguard at 1700, reporting that four surfers were in trouble in heavy surf at Widemouth Bay, was the first indication of the service.

Rollers Although the wind was only Force 2 to 3 the beach at Bude is open to the full force of the Atlantic rollers, and the sea state at the time of launching was reported as ' 7' - with a huge surf reaching more than 20ft high.

Conditions were near the limit for the D class, but she was launched immediately and was at the scene in less than ten minutes, where she began searching in the surf.

Three people had been brought ashore by lifeguards, but the crew of a helicopter from RAF Chivenor, which had also been scrambled, spotted a wet-suit clad body in the surf.

They recovered the fourth casualty soon after the lifeboat's arrival and took him ashore before rushing him to Barnstaple Hospital, where he was found to have died.

The crew of the D class contacted the coastguard mobile ashore, to check whether any other casualties were still in the water, and she was asked to remain on stand-by. At her position, a mile offshore, the surf was still around 20ft, and breaking.

At 1722 it was established that there were no further casualties, and the lifeboat was given the all-clear by the coastguard mobile at 1722, enabling her to return to station through the huge breakers..