Vincent (surname withheld) is experienced in the water but a split-second problem led to trouble last week, when he was left stranded 1km off the shore of Sydney's Northern Beaches.
On 18 December, the 43-year-old headed out in the early hours of the morning with a group of six others for a morning of paddling on surf skis, a type of kayak built for navigating waves on the open ocean.
The plan was to head from Shelly Beach, a cove near Manly Beach, up the coast to Long Reef, a distance of about 6km.
However, around 2km into the trip, Vincent was knocked out of his surf ski and his leg strap attaching him to the craft snapped.
The paddlers left from Shelly Beach, near Manly Beach in Sydney's north. Source: AAP / Paul Braven
"When I fell in, I was close to one of the paddlers but because it was three to four-metre swells, it's hard to see each other when you're moving through the water — and you can't hear each other because the wind was about 35 kilometres an hour," he told SBS News.
Vincent said panic set in for a moment, because the sun hadn't risen yet and mist was blocking his view of the headlands. However, he quickly realised his best shot at survival was to try to calm himself and simply float with the tide.
After reaching into the pocket of his personal flotation device (PFD), Vincent managed to make a call to emergency services through his wet bag.
"I could hear muffling of them talking to me but I was just trying to scream my coordinates and just telling them I was okay but I've lost my watercraft," he said.
Simply keeping his head above water, Vincent tried to conserve his energy and kicked with the tide, which was slowly bringing him closer to the shore at Manly Beach. He said he didn't feel too much panic after a while.
"I think once I figured out that if I just go onto my back and keep my head up, that I'd be OK," he said.
"I was sort of drifting with the swell towards the land and I was like 'OK, well, you'll eventually get there, doesn't matter how long it's going to take'."
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After 45 minutes of being battered by the swell, Vincent was hauled out of the water by two young lifeguards from Manly in a rescue boat.
While he says the incident was a "scary adventure", he was glad he didn't panic and try to swim against the current.
Vincent said that even with his PFD, he would have been in trouble if he hadn't gone with the flow of the ocean.
"If I was just kicking and trying to fight against the waves and trying to fight to swim, you burn energy."
Floating to survive
Float to Survive is a campaign spreading the message that floating and going with the flow of water in emergency situations is a "vital skill" that can significantly reduce the number of drownings.
Bruce 'Hoppo' Hopkins, head lifeguard at Bondi Beach and president of the Australian Professional Ocean Lifeguards Association, launched the Float to Survive campaign in 2018.
He said he had the idea after teaching water safety to multicultural communities in Wollongong.
"What I found is they all thought there were just too many messages for them," he told SBS News.
Bruce Hopkins (left) met with Governor-General Sam Mostyn (right) in December to discuss the Float to Survive campaign. Credit: Float to Survive
While most Australians are familiar with water safety messages from Surf Life Saving Australia such as knowing the conditions of the water, avoiding alcohol, and swimming between the flags at a patrolled beach, Hopkins said they are preventative steps.
"There's no message for when you're actually in trouble and in the water," he said.
Hopkins said the floating technique works in water from backyard pools to rivers and all inland waterways.
According to the latest National Drowning Report, which looked at the period from July 2023 to June 2024, about a quarter of the 323 drowning deaths happened at beaches and another quarter occurred in rivers or creeks.
There have been 19 drownings in Australia since 1 July, including two men who drowned at different beaches in Victoria and NSW on Boxing Day.
There have been seven coastal drownings in NSW since 1 December, according to Surf Life Saving NSW and 180 rescues were performed by volunteer lifesavers on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steven Pearce told SBS News the likelihood of drownings increases with the influx of people to the coast over summer, as well as people heading to holiday locations.
"People tend to flock to locations up and down the coast that are unpatrolled when they go on holiday," he said.
"Coupled with that, as we saw over the last few days, people are obviously in the festive mood and so the consumption of alcohol and recreational drugs also have a significant impact on rescues and drownings as well."
Hopkins believes teaching people to float in emergency situations can save lives.
While many people may panic that they will be swept far out to sea, Hopkins said the idea that people will "end up in New Zealand" is a myth and the vast majority of the time, people caught in rips will end up on a sandbank down the beach if they float in a rip.
"Rips aren't dangerous, it's just a flow of water, there's no undertows that pull you under, you just go with the flow of the water," he said.
With more people now relying on floating in the water, Hopkins said the method has reduced the number of rescues performed by lifeguards on Bondi Beach by 50 per cent over the past two years.
How to float
The Float to Survive campaign includes five steps for floating: leaning your head back and floating, taking slow deep breaths, spreading arms and legs for balance, using gentle circular motions to balance and stay afloat and signalling for help.
Hopkins said everybody floats a little differently and while children will tend to taught to float in a 'starfish' shape, adults can slowly tread water or lie back in a 'dentist's chair' position.
Source: SBS News
In the run-up to summer, Float to Survive kicked off swimming programs to teach tens of thousands of students to stay afloat in emergency situations and the technique is being taught at swimming lessons across the country.
Hopkins said while drownings will never be reduced to zero, floating with the current increases every person's chance of survival.
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"Just go to any waterway and practice whatever position suits you," Hopkins said.
"Once they get that position, they go: 'OK, now if I can't stand up somewhere, this is what I do until someone can come and get me.'"
