Surfers swept away at Bells now safe share their tale

TWO surfers were relieved to be back on dry land this afternoon after being swept away from Bells Beach shortly after 2pm today.

Luciano and Nicolas found themselves in a tight spot while surfing the high swells at Winkipop.

“We missed our exit at the cliff, so we thought we’d just head back out to sea and look for another way in,” Luciano said.

Unfortunately, their next chance to exit wasn’t until Boobs steps where Luciano encountered trouble.

“I got smashed against the cliff on the inside before I could paddle back out again,” he said.

“The water is moving pretty fast. There’s a lot of water moving around today.”

Nicolas who moved to the Surf Coast from Argentina said it wasn’t the biggest swell he had surfed at Bells but was the most memorable.

“It caught us off guard,” he said.”

“We just figured we can see a beach down there. We make our way there with the current and just track back.”

Nicolas’ partner, Maria, didn’t waste a moment when she saw them getting swept away, immediately calling for help.

“I just called the police straight away,” she said.

“They were washed away and I didn’t know the area, so I didn’t know there were steps at Jan Juc to get out. I just called.”

Her quick thinking saw police cars arrive almost immediately, with the Police helicopter and jet skis hot on their heels.

Local surfer Richie Kelly was gearing up go for a paddle when he caught wind of the ordeal, making him think twice.

“Hearing about it definitely gave me second thoughts,” Richie said.

“At first, I was pretty excited because it looked like no one was out, but then I spotted the cops and realised there’s a fair bit of water moving around the Button. You don’t see that often.”

Maria thanked all the police involved in the search.

“Special thanks to Rob, the policeman who accompanied me throughout the search, and to the whole police force team, who worked efficiently and had the whole team out at an extremely fast time and did a great search on air and water,” she said.