A lifeguard for the past three years, Maple Leaf draft pick Dennis Robertson finally got the chance to test his skills this week when he and five of his Brown University teammates helped save three youths from drowning.

“I’ve never actually saved anybody’s life before,” Robertson, 20 said on Friday in an interview from his Rhode Island university. “It still seems pretty surreal.”

Robertson, a sixth-round draft pick, was trying his hand at surfing with his buddies at a beach near Little Compton, R.I., on Tuesday afternoon when they heard cries for help.

The defenceman from Fort St. John, B.C., spotted a young boy floating on his back about 55 metres from shore.

Teammates Mike Wolff and Jeff Ryan helped bring two female swimmers, sisters aged 12 and 14, to safety from a rip current before Robertson and three others — David Brownschidle, Mike Borge and Bobby Farnham — set about helping the 14-year-old boy, who was much further from the beach.

Robertson, an engineering major, swam about 55 metres into the water and helped get the young boy onto a surfboard with assistance from his other friends. They then faced a harrowing trip back to shore through the rip current.

“I really thought the worst for him . . . he seemed to be unconscious, maybe not breathing . . . It looked as if he had got caught out there and had just stopped swimming,” Robertson said.

Fortunately, none of those rescued were injured. “It was a huge team effort,” Robertson said.

He and several of his teammates have been skating in unofficial workouts this past week. They decided to head to the beach for some fun on Tuesday.

“I don’t really surf but a couple of the other guys do so they decided to teach us, but that didn’t go very well,” he said.

“Because of Hurricane Irene, the waves were pretty good. But the beach was closed. There were no lifeguards on duty. We went out anyway. I can’t surf. I was just kind of body surfing and having fun. I wouldn’t call it officially surfing.”

Robertson said he and his friends had only been out in the water for about five minutes when they heard screams coming from about 30 metres away.

“I guess they couldn’t touch the bottom so they started yelling,” Robertson said. He didn’t initially hear their screams but Ryan did and was the first to react. Ryan swam after one of the girls and Wolff darted toward the other girl, Robertson said.

The Leaf draft pick then saw the boy and swam toward him. As it turned out, the boy was conscious and breathing.

“I got him to keep floating on his back and started pulling him to shore.

“We didn’t really notice the rip tide underneath when we went out. It was really strong and that’s what pulled these kids out to past the point where they could touch the bottom.

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“The boy was way out there. He just got pulled out. I guess he had given up trying to swim back in and was floating by himself but he was being pulled further out.”

Robertson expects to finish his entire second year with Brown this season before considering signing a pro contract.