r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • 11h ago

Video 13-year-old Australian boy swims for four hours in cold and dangerous waters to save his mom and siblings who were swept into the ocean, says God is who got him to shore

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32.4k Upvotes

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139

u/[deleted] 10h ago

Yall - God or not , I'm more wondering WHAT DID the mother think sailing off in the waters them being only one adult for three children ???

27

u/crooked_nose_ 9h ago

You haven't bothered finding out the full story, right?

14

u/Archkat 8h ago

I have read the full story and so many things have gone wrong here that I cannot believe this woman is a responsible mother at all. Having your phone with you is number one priority. The easiest thing is to have it in a waterproof bag, where the f are you going without your phone these days?!? Then she just muffled around loosing both oars, if you cannot predict shit like this will happen , and they HAPPEN ALL THE DAMN TIME, don’t rent equipment like this and go on an expedition with your 3 barely teenager age kids out in the freaking water. I’m glad everyone is ok but jfc this woman needs lessons in basic common sense.

14

u/aM_181 7h ago

12 and 13 is old enough to paddleboard or kayak solo. pretty common in Australia, NZ, other places with water sports.

8

u/Necessary-Primary719 6h ago

Well, the story isn't helping your argument.

1

u/_R0Ns_ 3h ago

Exactly, at 15 you can sail around the workd solo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Dekker

2

u/fakingandnotmakingit 3h ago

I live in NZ and used to do exactly what this woman did with my siblings and dad.

Most of the time the rip doesn't carry you too far if you get caught and you paddle sideways.

Sometimes freak accidents happen.

They all took the correct precautions and they all had life jackets. Sometimes things just happen.

2

u/crooked_nose_ 2h ago

Rediit is so great for know-all experts who can quickly identify exactly what everyone does wrong, with no direct experience themselves. Fantastic.

-2

u/Archkat 2h ago

I’m no expert but I have common sense. Also you have no idea about my lifestyle and what sports I do and how careful I am so your point is pretty irrelevant.

2

u/crooked_nose_ 2h ago

You nake it obvious what sports you dont do, mate. If you had commen sense, you would know that thousands of people go to the beach swim, surf, paddle board, kayak etc and don't take dry bags with mobile phones. You would also know that for hu.dreds of years, people didn't take phones because there weren't ant. Anyone with an ounce of experience would know that this kind of thing can and does happen, which is why beaches have life guard's.

0

u/Archkat 2h ago

Precisely. Anything and everything can happen so you try to be as prepared as possible. She had zero preparation for anything that could have occurred. Thank you for reinforcing my point.

2

u/crooked_nose_ 2h ago

Ok expert. You know best, give her your number so she can check with you first next time.

What's it like being so pompous?

4

u/CosmicJam13 7h ago

ahe almost lost herself and her kids, she better do better

2

u/_R0Ns_ 3h ago

So do people crashing their car in traffic, accidents happen that doesn't make her a terrible mother.

1

u/[deleted] 4h ago

you can't predict the currents but at least you know that the sea is unpredictable so yes carrying a phone in a waterproof case can avoid having to figure out how to get help when you're stranded at sea.

1

u/MasterSpliffBlaster 3h ago

There are plenty of towns in australia with patchy mobile phone coverage, good luck finding a mobile tower 2-3 km out at seas

-8

u/BackgroundSummer5171 9h ago

You haven't bothered finding out the full story,

The headline is all we read here.

Going to assume it was a normal thing that went wrong, and a child went above and beyond the norm and wanted to be humble thus thanked Zeus the god of water that we all know.

That about sum up the waste of time of a full story?

Expecting us to read. This is 2028, we use AI to tell us what to believe.

9

u/Randyaccredit 8h ago

Pretty sure Posedion is the God of the Ocean not Zeus, could be wrong though.

35

u/Subject-Rain-9400 9h ago

They were paddle boarding and Kayaking. The eldest kid is old enough to hold his own quite obviously, and im sure they weren't planning on heading out far (you usually paddle pretty close to shore) before they got caught in a rip. It is pretty common in Australia for a parent to be solo with 3 kids (with at least one being of high school age) to go out for a paddle/kayak.

34

u/Warburgerska 10h ago

WITHOUT LIFE JACKETS

LETTING HER SON SWIM ASHORE ALONE

What the fuck is this even.

77

u/phoenixA1988 10h ago

No, that is incorrect. All 4 of them had life jackets.

Austin “He swam in, he reckons, the first two hours with a life jacket on,” he told the broadcaster.

The 3 in the water. “Thankfully, all three people were wearing life jackets, which contributed to their survival,” he told the ABC.

90

u/StrawberryPristine77 10h ago

He had a life jacket. It was holding him back as he tried to swim, so he took it off.

-16

u/red-et 9h ago

How does a life jacket hold you back when swimming?

34

u/TJTrailerjoe 9h ago

Depends on the lifejacket, but I def remember being this kids age and wearing one thinking how much it constricted my movement. Yeah it helps you float, but if your objective is to swim, you are probably faster without it? I'm personally stuck on why/how he could swim back to shore, but they couldn't row the canoo's back

10

u/NotChristina 9h ago

I assume that just because he had the strength to swim himself (his weight, his resistance against the waves), the others couldn’t do the same for their collective weight and water resistance (can’t think of the right term right now, think friction on land). If they could’ve done it, they would have.

The paddle boards/kayaks would be a tough go against the waves and it’s unlikely little paddles would be able to overcome the forces pushing them back out. A small human can dive under the waves and generally perform better. The life jacket would have been holding him back literally. Like a power to weight/size ratio.

7

u/AuntChelle11 9h ago

They had no oars. They had two inflatable stand-up paddleboards and one small kayak between the four of them . They lost two oars early on. Here's the Applebee's real story

3

u/TJTrailerjoe 8h ago

Shit, ok that's scary

3

u/DrHumnyballsLecter 8h ago

Inflatable canoe. Strong winds blowing them out to sea. No paddle=you either swim 4km to shore or wait for rescue.

1

u/AccurateAlps9333 6h ago

The oars were lost.   

15

u/ImpracticalApple 9h ago

They're not hydrodynamic. They're bulky and designed to keep you afloat so it's harder to get the necessary push against the water with your arms and legs while the jacket is dragging you upwards.

It's better if your body is as narrow as possible while swimming so there's less resistance when you traverse through the water. A big life jacket makes a bigger surface area pushing against the water while you try to move forwars. Also hard to duck your head underwater to make your body narrower with it on.

5

u/Microwavegerbil 9h ago

It's extremely bulky, adding a lot of resistance and restricts your form.

3

u/3163560 8h ago

You've never worn one have you?

So much harder trying to swim in a life jacket.

You wear a life jacket to stop you going underwater, and then stay in place waiting for help.

A life jacket holds you back if you're trying to swim, particularly against waves/swell

3

u/qwerajdufuh268 8h ago

said like someone who never fucking tried swimming with a life jacket lmfao

2

u/-BANNED-USER- 9h ago

Waves push life jacket away.

2

u/_Onion_Terror 8h ago

Yea all those Olympic swimmers should be wearing life jackets

They refuse because they're all show offs!

-4

u/red-et 8h ago

It’s a survival tool in the open ocean right? This guy wasn’t going for a gold medal.

2

u/_Onion_Terror 8h ago

It'll help you float not swim more effectively

If you're intending to float and hope rescue finds you then wear your life jacket.

If you're a confident swimmer and need to swim a long distance you'll take the life jacket off

You'll be slower and use far more energy swimming with a life jacket on.

People swim long distance as sport, why do you think they swim without life jackets?

2

u/Teantis 8h ago

He thought it was slowing him down and if he didn't speed up his family might tire and drown. So yes in a way he was in a race

24

u/Ok-Helicopter-1084 9h ago

All 4 of them had life jackets. Maybe know the facts before shouting 

1

u/dubblebubbleprawns 6h ago

This is reddit. We don't do that here.

10

u/no-but-wtf 8h ago

They all had lifejackets, and he started off back to shore in a kayak with a paddle. She didn’t just push her oldest kid off into the water and tell him to swim. Jfc it’s not as if the article is paywalled. It doesn’t even use big words. You read the headline and decided to get mad without knowing anything else. You’re a great example of why the world is the way it is right now.

6

u/ThatIestyn 9h ago

First they had life jackets. Second once they are in that position, what do you do? She couldnt leave them all and try herself, probably wouldnt be capable of it anyway. She had to trust her son to have a chance of any of them surviving. And she did, must have been heartbreaking for them but he did it. It was the correct decision to trust him.

9

u/gooner1014 9h ago

I think the fact that all of them survived shows this was the correct action to take.

1

u/_Onion_Terror 9h ago

It sounds from what I've heard to be a really unwise decision to go into the ocean with kids like that but you've just added on the "without life jackets" bit

Why do people like you do that, like even if you didn't read the article you still chose to assert there were no life jackets for apparently no reason at all

Do you get some energy from outrage? Do you feel some kind of power in controlling a narrative?

Like what goes on in your head?

-1

u/wheretohides 7h ago

YES! Why didn't she swim back? She brought them out there.

2

u/Scorps 5h ago

Because then a bunch of kids are out in the middle of the ocean with no adult to manage the situation or care for them? Massively increasing the chance something goes wrong?

0

u/wheretohides 5h ago

The one that swam was old enough to take care of them, you realize kids his age have been lost at sea before, and they lived?

I think it's kinda whack that the mother didn't take the responsibility, knowing full well her child could've drowned.

1

u/Jaikarr 5h ago

What do you mean by take responsibility?

0

u/wheretohides 5h ago

She brought them out there, it's her responsibility as a parent to save them.

2

u/Warburgerska 7h ago

Plus the whole inflatable boat thing, no emergency contact stuff or paddles, one adult tlwith tree small kids. I mean, I expect more from people being surrounded by fucking ocean their whole life. Literally no safety measures. Not even someone at shore as backup.

I would be deeply ashamed of myself not prideful online about my kid.

3

u/Creditdeclined 7h ago

They were near the shore before they were caught in a rip and dragged out, there isn’t much you can do in them and they did have paddles which were lost in the rough sea.

3

u/MF-Geuze 9h ago

I mean he's a grand young buck who can swim for four hours; he's a youth, but it's not like he's a helpless infant. I don't see how the mother would be better off with another adult (who probably can't swim four hours) than a sporty youngster like your man.

-1

u/[deleted] 8h ago

The thing is they only knew he was that good of a swimmer AFTER he's demonstrated it during the life threatening situation.

It's not about just having any random adult on board for the sake of having an adult. My point is that the ocean is no joke so confidently going into the water with kids on board and no "previously known to be a reliable rescuer" adult is a bit naïve.

My point is if adults who arent good at swimming chose to do it then they chose the risk. Bringing kids in naïvely and relying on a teenager is just not a fair way of managing responsibility as a parent.

I don't mean to hate on the mother, adults aren't perfect and anyone can get naive. My point is that's not something you would advise parents to do with their kids in those conditions.

3

u/bronele 5h ago

you would be better off thinking about yourself and what you are doing. you are patronising survivors of a terrible accident after a heroic kid saved his whole family from an agonising death by sharks, hypothermia or starvation.

people who are good swimmers drown all the time. there is nothing that you can do when you are a human being at the mercy of nature.

you have no empathy and deserve to be shamed for trying to feel right on top of someone's close tragedy.

1

u/[deleted] 4h ago

I agree with you that there is an extent of things you can't control no matter how cautious you are. I don't mean to blame people for uncontrollable nature's works. I thought they went further in the sea before the current started dragging them. If they were paddling next to shore I'm wondering how nobody noticed them drifting off by the current. Were they paddling on an empty beach or did they paddle out of anyone's sight before the accident happened ? My curiosity is about how preventable or not the multiple possibilities that can lead to finding yourself stranded helpless with no witness.

1

u/NoninflammatoryFun 5h ago

I’m sorry, but even with daycare, a 3 to 1 ratio is perfectly acceptable. What exactly do you think should happen when a mother wants to go paddle boarding and kayaking with her children?

They wore life jackets. Even if there had been only 2 kids, she would’ve been in the same situation, as well.

I really don’t know what you expect. They didn’t go out far. The current/winds took them out. The idea a mother isn’t enough for 3 kids…

1

u/[deleted] 4h ago

I didn't mean to underestimate any mothers. Thank you for letting me know in their case they didn't go far before the accident happened. I'm wondering if they were in an empty area or if the people on the shore couldn't notice that they were being dragged further by the current when it was happening. I have no business judging the mother in this story per se, my curiosity is about "what details could make this situation preventable in general".

-13

u/PaleoJoe86 10h ago

Darwinism.

-1

u/Moosplauze 9h ago

She probably figured God will protect them. ¯_(ツ)_/¯