It was Monday, 9th December at 5.30pm and Finn Boyer, Molly Colgan, and Coby Whitehead had just arrived at North Mullaloo Beach for training. Finn, Molly and Coby had only completed their Surf Rescue Certificates the previous season. The trio were carrying their boards and chatting amongst themselves as they came down the entrance dune.

Suddenly, three girls frantically rushed up to them shouting there were people in trouble out in the water, pointing to where the swimmers were in terrifying distress in the ocean, dragged out beyond the waves in a dangerous rip current.

“We acted on instinct,” Molly recounts. “We knew we had to get out there fast to save the people who were drowning.” Without hesitation, they raced down to the water, with all three entering the water together, paddling hard and heading for the break.

20-year-old Mitch Lee, their club coach, was on the beach, and alerted by the yells, had also grabbed his board and raced out to the water first heading for the male swimmer who was further out beyond the break. They paddled hard in the rough conditions, the young teenagers braving huge sets of waves that were coming through.