Jake Satherley & Spencer Jeames: Nippers Save Drowning Man

by Jordan Yerman | January 12, 2010 at 08:56 am

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Jake Satherley and Spencer Jeams, two eight-year-old boys from Gold Coast, Australia, saved a man from drowning in a riptide off Northcliffe Beach in Surfers Paradise. These two young badasses swam out with a rescue board after seeing the man signal for help while swimming beyond the flags at the beach. They found the man and helped him onto the board until a grownup lifeguard showed up. Their reaction time must have been ridiculously fast.

Jake Satherley and Spencer Jeams are nippers: junior swimmers with the Northcliffe Life Saving Club. The nippers program is huge in Australia: many kids learn how to swim with their local Life Saving Club, and how to negotiate the dangerous waters for which Australian beaches are famous.

Jake says as soon as they realised the man was in trouble, they leapt into action.

"We saw him put his hand up and saying 'help, help' so we went over to him and pulled him on our board," he said.