SURFING TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 103, 25 January 1933, Page 10

SURFING TRAGEDY

Two Men Drowned BEACH AT GREYMOUTH Desperate Rescue Efforts CAUGHT IN BACK-WASH By Telegraph—Press Association. Greyniouth, Jan, 24. A double surfing fatality occurred at 4 o’clock this afternoon at Blaketown Beach, south of the Greyniouth Harbour entrance, the scene of previous tragedies. The victims were Elias Nordstrom, aged 24 years, and Charles Kerr McAnulty, aged 27 years, both of Greyniouth, and both officers of the local unemployment organisation. The men were poor swimmers and waded out over waist, deep, there being thirty others also surfing in the vicinity. The backwash at the time was exceptional as the tide was making. Jlessrs. JlcAnulty and Nordstrom were carried beyond their depth despite valiant efforts to save them. All the surfers found difficulty in the exceptional backwash. One man, Ivan James Curin, managed to grasp Mr. JlcAnulty, but the latter’s struggles, combined with the undertow, forced him to release him after bringing him six yards toward the shore. Mr. Curin called Jlr. Nordstrom to help'him, but he was in a bad way and soon disappeared, Mr. Curin returning to shore with difficulty. Another surfer. Jlr. Patrick Blanchfield, made an effort to reach the victims, but they were then drifting rapidly and he was obliged to seek his own safety. Three attempts with the aid of a lifeline were made from the shore by 'Jlessrs. William Smith, Michael Gordon, Frank Jloss, and Peter Affleck to effect a rescue, but the reel broke on the first two attempts. The third effort extended the full length of the line, 400 feet, but the victims had then disappeared. The bodies have not been recovered.

Jlr. Nordstrom was a native of Northumberland. He leaves a wife and a daughter, aged two, also a brother at Dobson and a mother in England. Mr. JlcAnulty was a native of Blantyre, Scotland. He leaves a widowed sister at Greyniouth and a brother, Andrew, at Christchurch. Four married sisters live at Blantyre. Both men were formerly Dobson miners.