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Gold Grandfather tells how he survived freak wave
July 25, 2006 Edition 1
Babalo Ndenze
The 60-year-old grandfather swept off the Kalk Bay harbour wall at the weekend thought not of his own safety, but made a dramatic effort to save his grandson and son-in-law from a freak, giant wave.
As grandson Logan Brown and son-in-law Dirk van der Berg cowered behind a small lighthouse at the end of the wall at the harbour entrance, Patrick Ross-Allen was overcome by the force of the wave on Sunday as he rushed to save them.
But he wasn't in the water for long when he managed to make it to the shore despite not having had a swim in 40 years.
Insisting he was OK, he returned home, but his wife packed him off to hospital. He is now recovering at N1 City with minor hip and head injuries.
From his hospital bed Ross- Allen insisted yesterday: "I'm doing okay. It's just my behind and a few scratches on my head."
Asked if he hadn't taken in lots of sea water, he quipped: "Can't you see the bay is empty."
Ross-Allen said that before he started fishing he had asked one of the skippers at the harbour whether the water was breaking over the wall, and they were told it wasn't too bad.
He said they were angling until the first wave came. He saw the wave coming and managed to get his son-in-law and grandson out of harm's way.
"The next wave took me. When I hit the water, I was a little bit out. I tried to take off my jacket, but whenever I tried, I kept going under. I decided to leave it on and swam to shore. I haven't swum in a long time, but swimming is like riding a bike. One must just not panic," said Ross-Allen.
His wife, Berenice, said she was shocked at what happened.
"He has back, hip and head injuries. He came home after the incident and said he was OK. I could see there was something wrong with him ... so I took him to hospital.
"He's 60 and he hasn't swum in about 40 years. I don't know how he managed (to swim). He swallowed a lot of sea water, so his blood pressure is also up."
It was the second such incident in less than a year.
Two Mpumalanga men of Pakistani origin nearly drowned when they were swept off the wall at the same spot last September. They were rescued by locals.
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