Seven months after Stephen Dick drowned while trying to save his 13-year-old son, his family returned to Boomerang Beach to reunite with the surfer who tried to save him.
Stephen Dick had gone into the water after his son, Jacque, who got pulled out to sea by a strong rip.
“It started getting worse and worse. And just pulled me straight out. I was exhausted,” Jacque told Sunday Night about the tragic day.
“I wanted to just stop and lie down, ’cause you just get to the point where you’re too tired to breathe.”
His dad swam out to get him, and pulled him back far enough that Jacque could stand up and walk safely to shore. However, Stephen didn’t make it, as he fell face first into the sea in exhaustion from his effort.
A local surfer, Jye Fischer, heard Stephen’s wife, Marianne Bonnay, crying out for help to save her husband.
“They yelled out to me ‘someone’s drowning’, and I kind of just took off as fast as I could to get down there,” Jye said.
“I knew pretty much straight away that he was gone, but miracles do happen and every second counts so I tried to do what I could.”
Jye brought Stephen into shore, however they were unable to resuscitate him.
“I just kind of lost it. I turned around, to walk off the beach,” Mr Fischer recalled.
“And one of the youngest kids came up to me and grabbed me and cuddled me and said ‘thanks for trying’. And I just broke down after that.”
The family reunited with Jye, and though he was unable to save him, it meant the world to him that he had tried, and that he had brought his body into shore.
Stephen’s wife Marianne said that she misses her husband’s company like nothing else.
“I miss his company. His jokes. He’s the father of my children. He was my best friend,” Marianne said.
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