Paramedics treat several people on the sand after they were pulled from the water. Credit:Emily Barton "I just ran down and jumped in and swam out to them. I got to an older lady and a young girl first and grabbed them both and swam them in." However, the words of the young girl he rescued next haunt him. "I ran around the rocks again and jumped in and pulled a younger girl out. That was a scary one. She was going down and not coming back up," Mr Martin said. "I grabbed her and she was saying she just wanted to go home and she didn't want to die.

Six-to-eight-foot waves battered the coastline at Burrill Lake Inlet on Wednesday. Credit:Emily Barton "I said to her, 'Just hang on to me and I will get you in'. That makes you feel sick to your stomach. It is overwhelming. "I know I am fine in the ocean but if something else happened to someone else like this, that is what you can't deal with. It is a horrible thought." Once the girl was safe, Mr Martin entered the water again to retrieve the rest of the swimmers, including a 43-year-old man who attempted to help the group. "Lastly, I ran around and got one of the guys who was trying to rescue them, but was getting washed out," he said.

"I helped him out as well and he was throwing up a lot of sea water. He was probably in the worst condition out of everyone. "When I left, the man was in an ambulance." 'Someone was still missing' Once Mr Martin had pulled the man to safety, there was chaos on the shore as people "screamed that someone was still missing". "I made a point of doing a head count and making sure everyone was there because that is the scary stuff, if someone is still out there and under," Mr Martin said.

"They got sucked all the way out and I ended up bringing people in right on the point. They got swept 300 to 400 metres at about 12 to 15 knots. It was really moving." The 33-year-old said he was "in the right place at the right time". Dangers not apparent Signs warning swimmers of the dangerous current in the inlet were not enough, Mr Martin said. "I don't think there are enough signs warning of the danger. It looks like a dream but it can, at the bottom end of the tide, get really dangerous," he said.

"There needs to be better signage and maybe safety buoys in place. Although, I still don't know if a safety buoy would have helped me, even if there was one. "I tried to use a surfboard but it was more of a hindrance when six-to-eight foot of whitewash was hitting me and I was trying to hold onto someone else. "For 350 days of the year, it is fine here. But there are a couple of days when it is dangerous and people aren't savvy enough to know the conditions. "I think everyone is lucky it turned out for the best. "I have seen a few people get in trouble there already this year. I was sort of shocked that the parents let the kids swim by themselves at that age."

Back to work After his heroic efforts, Mr Martin returned to work in the kitchen at Bannisters to serve dinner on Wednesday evening. The surfer and spear fisher said he was comfortable in the ocean and visited the inlet daily for a swim. However, he warned holidaymakers, or people who are not confident in the ocean, to steer clear of the waterway. "If you are on holidays and normally live inland, it doesn't matter how big the surf is. People panic and start getting swept out to sea," he said. This was not the first time Mr Martin had come to the aid of swimmers in trouble, having pulled a mother and her two young children from Narrawallee Inlet.

Illawarra Mercury