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A Catholic priest became an aquatic guardian angel to a pair of struggling swimmers in Western Australia. As ABC News reports, the event was even more remarkable for being the second time the “surfing priest” had performed an ocean rescue.
The rescue occurred last weekend at Western Australia’s Cable Beach. Father Liam Ryan, a Catholic priest at Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Broome, Western Australia, was surfing when he noticed a father and son who had become caught in a rip current nearby.
“I saw a couple of fellows who looked like they were getting pretty close to where a little flash rip was,” Ryan told ABC. Upon seeing the struggling beach-goers, he called to them, but got no response. He then paddled over and one of them promptly climbed onto his board, grateful for the help.
Remarkably, this was not the first time Ryan had performed a rescue while surfing in WA. In 2020, he saved another swimmer who had been bitten by a shark. That time, Ryan was surfing at Bunker Bay beach, located 160 miles south of Perth, when he witnessed a 16-foot-long shark sink its teeth into the leg of 28-year-old Phil Mummert, just a few yards away. In response, he paddled over and, with the aid of another surfer, managed helped the man to shore. Two years later Ryan received an Australian Bravery Award in recognition of the rescue.