A swimmer who used his Apple watch to call for help after being swept a mile out to sea said he had no idea whether it would work or not.
Rick Shearman headed to his local beach in Byron Bay for an early morning swim on Saturday morning, but things quickly took a turn for the worse.
“I was actually actively looking for some good waves and found them, but after being in the water for about 20 minutes it started to get a little rough,” Rick said. Today.
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Rick tried to make it back to shore, but the massive waves continued to crash into him and he began to struggle.
“I was held underwater and losing my breath, my energy – I hadn’t had my morning Wheaties yet,” he said.
“I couldn’t take it anymore, I needed to get out of there, so I ran straight back, beyond the waves.”
This move allowed Rick to immediately escape trouble with the waves, but he found himself hundreds of yards from shore and realized he was in trouble.
“I was trying to keep my cool and find a break in the waves to get back to shore, but they were too big, it was impossible,” he said.
“I had to think about what other options I had to get out of this situation and that’s when I looked at my watch and thought it must have some kind of SOS function.”
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But Rick said he didn’t think his watch was part of his main phone plan and had no idea whether the emergency call would work or not.
“I’d never had a reason to look at this feature before but I solved it on the fly and I got a call to emergency services and I had no idea exactly where I was, I just told them I was at the back of Byron Bay,” he said.
Fortunately, crews responded quickly and a rescue helicopter was sent from the Gold Coast to assist.
Alex Carroll was on board the helicopter and said Today Time was of the essence to help Rick.
“We were airborne within minutes, obviously the location is not just ten minutes from the Gold Coast, so it was a very critical rescue situation for us,” he said.
But the crew got to Rick in time and he told Alex that he owed him his life.
“I am eternally grateful to you and to all the efforts of all the agencies, staff and volunteers involved. It was an incredible, smooth and efficient effort,” he said.
“The mere fact that I was able to make that emergency call from my watch, I don’t really know how it worked, but it certainly got me out of trouble.”
Watch the full conversation with Rick and Alex in the video above