Richard's Story:

"I remember, it must have been around February 2006, the biggest seas in over 30 years to hit Sydney's beaches.

The call came through to the Sydney Northern Beaches Support Service Group. This is the volunteer patrol to which I belong that is called when there's trouble for whatever reason, it could be a plane crash, anything.

In this case there were two tow-in surfers in trouble out at Long Reef headland, a location around 5 kilometers north of my base at Freshwater Beach. Details were scant but help was requested urgently.

The swell was running so strongly there was almost no beach on that day, the sand was covered in water, and as we launched a 6' whitewater surging almost up to the grass at Freshie hit me.

This is a typical problem where most sled type products get crippled as in the launch in the shore break the jet ski is pushed back onto the sled causing the sled to jack-knife and often snap or suffer similar fatal damage. In my case I had been involved in the rigorous Wahoo LIFESLED testing  and had used the sled for many years with never an issue. There wasn't this time.

Getting out through the shorey was the worst of it till I passed through the giant bombora's breaking off the German Bank miles outside between Dee Why and Long Reef beaches and about two thirds of the way to the rescue location. There was some huge waves breaking out there, but I made it through without incident.

I arrived at Long Reef and on first inspection could see hundreds of people on the headland which is high above the water but there was no sign of the surfers in trouble. After circling I found their jetski, submerged and drifting out to sea.

Then I caught sight of two surfers up on the rocks. Now these rocks are normally exposed and at low tide you can walk out to them. Today, on the high tide, they were only partly exposed, with the bigger set waves crashing right over them, and large volumes of water circling around cutting them off from the land.

Mentally the pressure was on for me to work out how to do this, how to perform this rescue.

I made two false starts timing the set waves. On the third attempt I drove the jet ski up onto the rock ledge not far from the surfers and as the water receded I landed the ski on the rock ledge and called to the boys, two 16 year olds.

They looked at me and I could see they were incredulous, and it looked like they were weighing their chances of staying where they were.

A large set started to loom outside and I called again. This time they acted and jumped onto the LIFESLED, easily grabbing the handles in that critical situation. The two boys were easily catered for on the sled and I sure didn't want to have to go in there a second time.

As the first white water hit, the ski lifted and I powered out to the north side of the reef over the normally exposed rock ledges and in moments we were out of trouble in deep water, the two boys on the LIFESLED safe, skimming along behind me. I dropped them off at the sheltered boat ramp at Fisherman's Beach.

I felt sorry for the boys because the crowd had moved to greet them and did their mates ever give them heaps!

You might think it was over with an easy passage back to base, however while  crossing the bombora area, I waited for a set to pass then made high speed across the impact zone.

Suddenly I found myself shoulder deep in water! The ski had fully submerged beneath me with only my head above water. Remember I'm standing up on this thing and it was under a lot of water. The LIFESLED at the rear is what was all that was helping hold us up. A huge air bubble must have been rising just as we passed over and the ski had dropped down into this. I remember looking around thinking, 'It's a long way to swim from here!' But we came good and the VX 110 surfaced and I arrived safely back at base.

Recounting the story now and looking back over the years and the testing I've participated in across many similar sled products, several things clearly stand out about the LIFESLED.

It has been very well thought through and designed. The handles for example fold flat to allow patients easy access to the sled but then spring back helping retain the patient in place. In a situation where a patient might be unconscious this patient packing is critical. Most rescue situations involve a 'snatch and grab' and the handles are perfectly designed to maximize success in that type of situation.

Structurally, we have never had a failure and we have over 30 LIFESLED over the years. Not only is construction solid, the LIFESLED has connection bungees that are designed to sheer away in the 'jack-knife' situation and they can be easily and cheaply replaced even out in the water. This prevents damage to the sled and allows you to stay operational.

The robustness of the LIFESLED is important not only from the rescue side of things but also budget-wise. Before the LIFESLED we had been replacing the sleds many times over. In fact some sleds broke during training, snapping like carrots, after only 3 hours use! You couldn't repair them, they were like cheap body boards.

Now we have retained the LIFESLED for many years while replacing the jet skis! In this way the LIFESLED has made a big difference to the funds we have available to field resources.