IntO tHe Cauldron Few people would risk swimming 30m through churning seas, surrounded by rocks – but that’s exactly what an RNLI lifeguard did in her bid to save a life South of Cornwall’s popular Perranporth beach, a gully lies in amongst the rocks at Droskyn Head, evocatively named Bat Cave 2 by the locals. It was into this cauldron of water that a 36-year-old surfer found himself swept on the afternoon of 22 September 2006. Waves 2m in height were bouncing off three sides of the gully and quickly carried the surfer’s board out of reach. Remarkably, the man managed to scramble onto a rocky shelf for temporary respite but the tide was rising and he could not climb any higher. As the waves hurtled in, he desperately hoped someone would hear his cries for help.

Half a mile to the north, RNLI Lifeguard Kris O’Neill was training aboard a rescue watercraft (RWC) when he saw Senior Lifeguard David Green on the beach signalling for him to return to shore. The trapped surfer was in luck – a member of the public had seen him and raised the alarm. Lifeguard Sophie Grant-Crookston was detailed to join Kris on the RWC. ‘Sophie jumped on the back and told me what was up,’ remembers Kris, who duly sped off towards Droskyn Head.

‘When we arrived, we could see a crowd of people at the top looking down at the surfer. He was still on the rocks and the conditions were rough.’ Kris knew that he couldn’t take the RWC in close to the casualty without putting Sophie, himself and the craft in serious danger. The Lifeguards agreed that the only way to reach the surfer was for one of them to swim through the confused seas themselves. Sophie volunteered.

Kris found a more sheltered area of water to allow Sophie to put on swim fins and attach a rescue tube (a buoyancy aid for casualties). He then drove within 30m of the casualty and Sophie set off on a treacherous swim through the breaking waves and pillars of rock. ‘I just did it, it was automatic,’ she recalls. ‘The sea swell was taking me here, there and everywhere. It was pure adrenalin, no fear, apart from one point when I lost sight of Kris.’ While Sophie made slow progress towards the casualty, Kris assessed the situation and decided to radio for back up. He asked for a Coastguard cliff rescue team, in case the casualty could not be reached from the seaward side after all, and requested the launch of the lifeguards’ inshore rescue boat (IRB). Back at the beach, David Green responded by asking off-duty colleague Robin Howell to forego his planned surf and take the helm with him in the IRB.

Sophie, meanwhile, had succeeded in negotiating her way through the waves and was now in reach of the ledge – but climbing onto it was a task in itself. ‘It was really difficult,’ she remembers. ‘I thought it would be easier to climb up if I took my fins off, but as I was doing so a wave came in and sucked me backwards. So I had to put them back on to swim in again.’ Eventually she scrambled up to reassure the surfer, who was shocked, tired, and had suffered many cuts and bruises.

Robin and David arrived at the scene aboard the IRB shortly afterwards. Robin decided he would attempt a run right into the gully. He signalled his intentions to Sophie, waited for a lull in the waves and drove in, turning into the oncoming swell with the rock ledge to his port side. ‘It was impeccable driving,’ says Sophie, who, having attached her rescue tube to the surfer, encouraged him to jump into the water. She helped him swim to the IRB, and the pair were pulled aboard. ‘You have to remember that I had a boat with a 30hp engine on the back,’ says Robin. ‘But to get in the water and swim in and out is a lot more difficult, so I had the easy end of the stick – Sophie had the other end.’ Back at Perranporth beach, Sophie and the casualty were both treated for cuts sustained on the rocks. The exhausted surfer was also given oxygen therapy. ‘I think he would have been in serious trouble if there had been no lifeguards on that beach because the tide was coming in and he would have got washed off. He would have been so tired that he would have lost his life,’ says Sophie. ‘One poor guy did die there 12 months earlier, when there were no lifeguards on duty.’ For his part in the rescue, Robin Howell received the RNLI’s Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum, while Kris O’Neill and David Green receive Service certificates.

‘Robin showed great skill, judgement and bravery,’ adds the RNLI’s Lifeguard Manager for south west England Steve Instance. ‘Our lifeguards showed tremendous teamwork that day and, under difficult conditions, were able to put all their training into practice.’ Sophie was awarded the RNLI’s Bronze Medal for Gallantry at the 2007 Annual Presentation of Awards (see page 6) – the first woman lifeguard to be recognised in this way. ‘She put herself at considerable risk to reach the casualty,’ says Steve Instance.

‘She did it without a thought for her own safety.’ The sea swell was taking me here, there and everywhere.’ Sophie Grant-Crookston, RNLI Lifeguard Photos: Nigel Millard and Mike Thomas/Western Morning News.