Tenby volunteer crew member Rob Garland, who was part of the volunteer crew that rescued Lilly Evans after being blown out to sea on her paddleboard at Pendine Sands. The family including dad David and mum Kiki were reunited with the lifeboat crew at the station to say thank you. David is running the Newport and London marathons in Arpil 2025 to raise funds for Tenby RNLI.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So, the weather was quite nice, nice clear skies, plenty of sunshine, however up at Pendyne
00:08where the rescue took place there was a very strong offshore wind blowing which was a massive
00:15contributing factor in Lily being blown out to sea at the speed in which she was.
00:21I just got back from walking the dogs and I just put the dogs into the back garden and
00:27then the pager went, so it was a case then of go get the car keys and get down to the
00:32station as quickly and safely as possible.
00:35Lily was on a paddle board which was being blown out to sea very, very quickly by a very
00:41strong offshore wind.
00:43She was on her own, she didn't have a means of calling for help and she didn't have a
00:50buoyancy aid on either.
00:53I assisted Lily onto the lifeboat with other crew members and then once Lily was on board
00:59the lifeboat, we brought her inside the wheelhouse here.
01:02She was sat onto this seat where she was wrapped up in jackets and blankets, reassured to let
01:11her know that she was safe, warmed up and also given a little bit of chocolate as well.
01:19The biggest challenge was spotting Lily.
01:22As I stated, there was a very strong offshore wind which was bringing up white horses crest
01:29in waves and it made spotting Lily extremely difficult.
01:34Thankfully due to the type of lifeboat we've got here, we are quite elevated and it was
01:38one of our other crew members, Rob, who spotted Lily some way off and that really posed a
01:46challenge in spotting her in the breaking waves.
01:50Lily was just being continually blown out to sea, it just doesn't bear thinking about
01:54really what would have happened and we were just glad that we were there to be able to
01:59get to her and to take her back to the safety of her parents, make sure she was okay.
02:04So the main message we'd like to get out to members of the public who are going paddleboarding
02:08is to have all the kits, all the safety kit, make sure you've got a buoyancy aid, make
02:13sure you've got a means of calling for help, a mobile phone in a waterproof pouch.
02:20If there's a leash, wear the leash, let somebody know where you're going, let them know what
02:25time you're due back as well and if you do get into any trouble at all, then phone 999
02:31and ask for the coastguard straight away.