Brothers Nash and Storm Balmain, aged 10 and 9, and friend Zane Hammersley, 10, were out on their surf club boards about 3.30pm when their parents – watching on shore – spotted three other children being pulled out to sea by a rip.

“I paddled over to ‘em and just said ‘Keep calm and don’t panic’, and I said to Zane and Storm to come over,” Nash said. 

The three boys worked together to load the two younger children onto their boards while the third swimmer made it to shore, calmly telling them “Hop on, get your breath back and then we’ll start paddling in”.

“We told them to hold on to the strap and stay calm, so they didn’t lose their confidence,” Nash said.

With the help of Warilla resident Dave English, the boys also went back into the water to help the swimmers’ grandmother and her Jack Russell dog who had ventured in to the water during the rescue.

“Their Nan was on the beach, and we were telling her to stop, but she went straight out into the rip,” Zane’s father Glenn Hammersley said.

“A little Jack Russell followed her out, so then there was two kids, a dog and their Nan in the water.”

Mr English then went to help the boys, directing Nash to carry the dog to shore on his board while he helped the grandmother. 

“We’re pretty excited and proud about it today,” Nash said.

“We’ve been practicing surf rescues at surf club, so that’s how we knew what to do,” Zane said.

Mr Hammersley said he was “really proud” of all three boys, who have been nominated for a bravery award by their surf club.

“Zane has been with the surf club since he was four, and they all know how to read the surf and do a rescue,” he said.

“We were talking about how they did such a good job, they didn’t panic and they did exactly what they’d been shown to do. It just kicked in and they did it naturally – and that’s what doing surf club is all about.”