Advertisement

'Hero s**t': Aussie surfer Mikey Wright praised for dramatic rescue

Mikey Wright (pictured left) running on the beach and (pictured right) helping save a woman at the beach.
Mikey Wright (pictured left running) sprinted into the surf and helped save a woman (pictured right) in Hawaii. (Images: Instagram)

Aussie surfer Mikey Wright has been praised in the surfing community for his heroics after coming to the rescue of a woman caught in dangerous surf.

Wright was watching on, and happening to be filming, at Ike Beach in Hawaii as a beachgoer started to struggle in rough conditions.

'EMBARRASSED’: Olympic swimmer Emily Seebohm's hidden two-year battle

'ROCK BOTTOM': The heartbreaking year that left Mick Fanning 'totally empty'

After realising he might need to step in the 24-year-old surfer handed his phone to his wife and ran out to help the woman.

“He’s gonna need to get saved,” Wright said, as he handed off his phone.

“You can’t save him,” a woman said nearby.

But Wright sprinted into the surf before navigating his way past a rock bed and the dangerous waves.

He was able to reach the woman and used his body to protect her from the rocks as he guided her back towards shore.

Other bystanders rushed to help the pair as they reached the shore and were able to drag her from the water.

Wright praised for heroics in daring rescue

The hero of the moment, Wright, told Channel Nine’s The Today Show he felt he needed to intervene the situation was turning bad as he started to film.

“I was on my phone to pass my phone to my wife, and I was like ‘grab my phone, this person is going to need saving’ and I dropped my beer and ripped my camera out of my pocket, took my shirt off and had to jump the fence,” he said.

“From when we first seen it, to when we realised it was going to be really bad, it was only a matter of seconds.”

Wright said he never concerned about his own safety, but was rather assessing the situation when running down to rescue the woman.

Tyler, sister of Mikey and two-time world surfing champ, was on the shore and helped direct her brother to safety.

“Look, it was an intense situation, but he is a water man, this is what we have been doing since we were kids. We have surf life saving skills,” she said.

“At that point, I knew the way he was positioning himself was to take take the full impact of the rocks and copping the waves, so I wasn’t too worried.

“At that point, the concern was for the woman and how long she had left before she would really start to struggle.”

The surfing community rallied around Wright after he posted the footage to social media with the caption: “Hold my beer.”

His sister posted the video with the caption: “Closing out 2020 with some hero s**t.”

Surfing legend Mike Fanning wrote: “Wow that could have ended really badly. Well done.”

Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.