Durban surfer recounts Indonesian ordeal

Brett Archibald in the middle with his surfing buddies L-R Craig Killeen, Tony Singleton, Jean-Marc Tostee and Mark Snowball.Brett survived for 28 hours after falling overboard in Indonesia.Picture Zanele Zulu.05/05/2016 ZZ

Brett Archibald in the middle with his surfing buddies L-R Craig Killeen, Tony Singleton, Jean-Marc Tostee and Mark Snowball.Brett survived for 28 hours after falling overboard in Indonesia.Picture Zanele Zulu.05/05/2016 ZZ

Published May 6, 2016

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Durban - The Durban man who in 2013 fell overboard while in remote Indonesian waters, and was attacked by jellyfish and picked at by seagulls, this week swopped stories with his childhood friends who helped rescue him.

Brett Archibald – who now lives in Camps Bay – and his friends shared their harrowing account, which is captured in his book Alone: the Search for Brett Archibald across the city this week, saying he had been “blown away” by all the support it’s received.

The surfer and businessman’s story broke in April 2013.

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) reported at the time that he had fallen overboard after battling severe sickness while on a surfing trip in the Mentawai Islands – a chain of 70 islands off the Western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Miraculously, he was found relatively unscathed more than 28 hours later, after treading water and swallowing loads of sea water.

“Durban still feels like home to me – my mum still lives here so I often come back,” Archibald said.

“So many people wonder why the experience hasn’t put me off surfing, but the ocean is the place I feel closest to God. He saved me that day.

“I thought I had no chance of surviving. I started saying my goodbyes.”

Archibald had disappeared in rough seas hundreds of kilometres from land and the search was launched only eight hours after he fell overboard.

With nothing to hold on to, he began to tread water.

According to the experts, he should have died within 10 to 14 hours.

He had made the trip with several childhood friends and one of them, Jean-Marc Tostee, said that the men had been forced to take charge of the situation.

“We had all been in the army, so those survival instincts kicked in. We asked the captain if we could take over the search and he gladly agreed. We spent R50 000 on fuel.”

He said Archibald’s feat – which was estimated at swimming the equivalent of 50 Midmar Mile races – had made their efforts worth it.

His other friends – Craig Killeen, Tony Singleton and Mark Snowball – said that while they felt despair, it quickly changed to strong resolve.

“Once the message went out over social networks, we received an outpouring of support which helped give us strength to find him,” said Singleton.

Snowball called the ordeal “surreal”.

“We wanted to believe so badly that he was alive. We just kept pushing to find him.

Killeen had informed Archibald’s wife of what had happened through his wife.

“It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. There are no words,” he said.

After a massive search and rescue effort, Archibald – dehydrated, sunburnt and without a life-jacket – was found drifting at sea by the surf charter motor sail yacht Barrenjoey (an Australian surf charter boat and crew), 12 nautical miles East of Sipura Island.

Archibald said at the time he had come close to drowning at least eight times during his ordeal, that he had been stung by jellyfish and picked at by fish and seagulls which had tried to pluck his eyes out.

The Mercury

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