An “exhausted” surfer who survived more than 32 hours adrift on his board before being spotted by a coastguard helicopter has described his rescuers as heroes.
Matthew Bryce (22) from Glasgow, was winched aboard a Glasgow Prestwick coastguard helicopter on Monday evening. The rescue was effected after he was located north of Rathlin Island and 20km adrift of where he started surfing on the Argyll coast in Scotland on Sunday morning.
He went out surfing sometime before 11.30am on Sunday and was rescued at 7.30pm on Monday evening. Mr Bryce was taken to the Ulster Hospital in east Belfast where a spokeswoman on Tuesday said he was in a "stable" condition.
“I am so grateful that I am now receiving treatment in hospital,” said Mr Bryce from his hospital bed on Tuesday. “I cannot thank those enough who rescued and cared for me. They are all heroes,” he added.
Mr Bryce said he was too weak to do any interviews. “For now, I am not facilitating any interviews as I am exhausted. Please respect the privacy of myself and my family at this time as I recover,” he said.
Mr Bryce’s father John said to get the call from the police that his son “was alive was unbelievable. It was better than a lottery win, you just can’t describe it.”
“The past 48 hours have been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions for our family and we are so grateful that Matthew has been found safe and well,” he said.
“Matthew means the world to us; he is such a strong character both mentally and physically, and we are looking forward to being reunited with him. We’ve managed to speak to him briefly on the phone and he is obviously exhausted after his ordeal, but he is in good spirits and happy to be alive.”
John Bryce praised and thanked the rescue services and said he and his family were overwhelmed by the number of people who offered support and good wishes
Lawrence Cumming of the coastguard in Bangor, Co Down, who oversaw the search planning during the rescue operation said he understood that Mr Bryce got into difficulties after possibly suffering cramp while surfing off Machrihanish beach near Campbeltown in Scotland.
Mr Cumming said that when he was taken aboard the helicopter he was “severely hypothermic”. He was given immediate first aid and then flown to the hospital.
Mr Cumming said that Mr Bryce was extremely grateful to the coastguard crew. “He got into some difficulty off the beach at Machrihanish, perhaps due to some sort of cramp. He then tried to make it ashore but couldn’t,” he explained.
“He then drifted down to the Mull of Kintyre thinking he was going to be able to make it ashore, but the tide just took him back out to sea again.” There were difficult off-shore wind conditions at the time.
Mr Cumming said Mr Bryce described how while drifting through the night he “observed the lights of what he thought were fishing boats which he tried to swim to but wasn’t able to”.
He said that with night approaching on Sunday evening there was great concern for Mr Bryce. However, at about 7.30pm after refuelling the helicopter the pilot and crew resumed the search and spotted Mr Bryce.
“I don’t know what was going though his mind when he saw the helicopter overhead. The crew said he was speechless and then very thankful and grateful.”
Mr Cumming added that Mr Bryce showed grit and courage.
“He did help himself because he stayed with his board and that was a massive contributory factor to his survivability. Also the fact he was wearing a reasonably heavy wet-suit with hood and gloves and boots helped him,” he said.
His rescuers even managed to retrieve his surfboard. Before flying from the scene the coastguard helicopter left an identifying smoke flare which allowed the RNLI from Campbeltown to pick up the board which will be returned to Mr Bryce.
Mr Cumming said it was a major and difficult rescue operation and that because the alert wasn’t raised until he had been missing for more than 24 hours “the clock was very much against us”.
Up to 50 members of the coastguard and RNLI were involved in the search, with police also involved. Three RNLI lifeboats – two from Scotland, one from Northern Ireland – searched different apportioned sections of the search area while a coastguard helicopter from Glasgow and a police helicopter also searched designated areas.
During the operation the police helicopter had to be diverted to another mission. Crews also were involved in searching the shoreline.
Mr Cumming said the crews were delighted to have rescued Mr Bryce. “It is great that he is around and making a recovery; we are delighted that we managed to get him.”
Dawn Petrie, also from the coastguard, said that "after such a long period in the water and with nightfall approaching we were gravely concerned" for the safety of Mr Bryce. He was "extremely lucky", she said.
