A 15-YEAR-OLD Kingsway High School learner became a hero when he played a big part in saving a drowning woman in Pennington Beach in November 1988.

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Michael Chapman told the SUN that he had taken a boogie board into the surf to test the current before allowing his younger brother, Mathew (7), to go in. When he went in, the water was rough, and a strong current took him out.

“I noticed a lady swimming behind me, and when I turned to go back to the shore, a man on the beach waved to me and pointed to his wife, the lady in the water. I paddled back to her, and she grabbed hold of the board. I tried to catch a wave back, but with two of us holding onto the board, it was too heavy,” said Michael.

Their predicament was noticed by a man who came out to them on a board. Grabbing hold of both boards, the exhausted woman was kept afloat.

The rescued woman was extremely grateful and said that she had swum out too far and was too tired to get back without help.

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