Cape Town - It looked like he would be ripped apart. Shane Keenan lay half on the boat, his upper body pinned down by a crew of rescuers. Below the water outside Camps Bay, his legs were snagged by a mess of kite ropes threatening to pull him under the surf.
Gunning the boat’s motor was a last-ditch effort to save the 18-year-old from certain death. National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesman Craig Lambinon said while the two opposite forces, of the taut cords and the vessel, threatened to almost rip him in two, Shane was eventually hauled to safety.
These were the dramatic scenes that unfolded on Tuesday when Shane, visiting from Joburg, chased a wayward kite into the ocean.
Lambinon said: “He had been flying a large kite on the beach. When it got caught in the wind (and plummeted) into the sea, he chased after it but got into difficulties and was swept about 200m offshore before being swept towards the rocks at Maidens Cove.”
Lifeguards tried to swim after him but had to abort the rescue attempt.
Lambinon said when the NSRI’s deputy station commander, Johnny Alberts, arrived aboard the NSRI Bakoven rescue craft, he found Shane among the rocks in Maidens Cove.
“The sea conditions were horrendous,” he said, adding that bringing the vessel any closer to the stranded teen would put him in “grave danger”.
He told Shane to swim. But Lambinon said the beachgoer was fearful.
“Rescuers could not understand why he was not responding to the request to swim towards the sea rescue craft.”
Despite the conditions, Alberts decided to make a sweeping path. Shane was now almost between the rocks and Lambinon said he ran the risk of being battered against their jagged edges by the heaving swells.
“Again (Alberts) shouted to the teenager to swim free of the rocks towards the sea rescue craft.”
But Shane just said: “I can’t swim.”
Just then the swell threatened to smash the vessel into the rocks and it retreated. They waited, watching the waves sweep by, knowing that Shane could quickly be picked up and thrown onto the rocks.
Then there was a lull and Alberts gunned the boat towards the drowning teen’s position.
In a backwash of water, the crew were shocked to find that Shane’s legs were entangled by the kite’s long, tight cords and he was now lodged between the rocks.
They pulled Shane’s upper body on board. Alberts then shouted to his crew to pin it down as the ropes tugged violently at Shane’s legs.
“They hung onto him while (Alberts) steadily gunned the boat into the 3.5m waves that were breaking over the sea craft,” said Lambinon.
There was a moment when the crew feared he would be ripped apart. But as the vessel reached deeper water, the kite load entangled around Shane’s legs appeared to get lighter.
They were eventually able to pull him aboard and untangle him.
Paramedics raced to the sea rescue station at Bakoven and when the rescue craft arrived at base, medical treatment was continued by paramedics while further rope was cut free from the teenager’s legs,” said Lambinon.
NSRI spokesman Andrew Ingram told the Cape Argus on Tuesday night that Shane had been discharged from hospital with a clean bill of health.
Cape Argus