Multiple Fatalities as Easter Swell Turns Deadly Along NSW Coast
Tragedy and triumph collide over the Easter long weekend on the East Coast.
Click here for our entire premium breakdown of the Sydney swell bonanza.
Easter came, the swell abounded (not you, Bells), and so did the chaos.
In what Surf Life Saving NSW called an “absolutely tragic start” to the long weekend, three people have drowned and another is missing after a bittersweet mix of bravado and heavy water arrived along the NSW and Victorian coasts.
Surf Life Saving NSW called it the most fatal stretch in recorded history. Since Good Friday, seven people have died, with two more still missing.
“Absolutely horrific,” said SLS CEO Steven Pearce. “It was the perfect storm — hot weather, a long weekend, hundreds of thousands flocking to the coast, and a powerful, unforgiving swell.”
Thursday night in Wollongong, a 58-year-old fisherman was swept off the breakwall at the harbour and didn’t make it home. Just hours later, another man copped it at Middle Head Point near Manly — same story: big surge, wrong place, goodbye.
At the ominously named Disaster Bay, a young man was pulled from the ocean face-down. And in Sydney, a search is ongoing for a man who was seen struggling at Little Bay Beach. Cops, choppers, lifeguards, et al. But as of sundown, no luck.
Down south in Victoria, a woman drowned at a notorious rock platform near Phillip Island, and her husband is still missing. Word is they were both swept off while spectating the Easter swell.
Thanks to a deep low in the Tasman Sea, haymakers have been thrown at the entire stretch of coast across both states. The Bureau of Meteorology is calling the swell “very powerful” — polite speak for stay the hell off wet rocks.
The last six weeks have delivered a non-stop run of surf on the East Coast. Cyclone Alfred dished out a Kirra run for the ages in early March. Later that month, a vicious Tasman low produced some of the biggest waves in recent memory between the Hunter and Illawarra regions. And just as the ocean caught its breath, ex-Tropical Cyclone Tam swung through the Coral Sea and gifted a clean, heaving Easter Friday swell.
But despite the warnings, people keep gravitating toward peril. “Watching big surf from sketchy spots like rock platforms is just as dangerous as being in the ocean,” said Steve Pearce from Surf Life Saving.
Click here for our entire premium breakdown of the Sydney swell bonanza.
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