Perth man Simon Williams tells of incredible surf rescue at Yallingup Beach

The first responder to a surfing incident at Yallingup Beach which left a man fighting for life, has told how he rushed into the surf to save the bleeding man after he heard his cries for help. Perth man Simon Williams said he was walking along the beach to get a coffee with his family when he heard a man yelling from the water “help, help. Fin chop. I need a tourniquet”. “I just heard someone in the lagoon crying out,” Mr Williams said. “I stood there for about 15 seconds trying to process it, and then thought ‘I need to go out’. “I took my jacket and T-shirt off and went in.” The surfer, aged in his 40s, had been surfing in Yallingup about 7.30 am on Monday when a fin from his surfboard sliced his underarm. It is understood the fin cut an artery. Mr Williams, along with another bystander, entered the water and brought the man to shore, where they cut his wetsuit and used a surfboard leash to construct a makeshift tourniquet. “There was a lot of blood, there was blood in the water, I looked down and had it all over me,” Mr Williams said. Mr Williams’s wife Kate then called an ambulance, and several other people arrived on the beach to help including a local doctor who had heard the chaos from the water and “took charge”. The 47-year-old finance worker had been on holiday in Yallingup with his wife, two daughters and parents, who arrived from Manchester on Thursday for the first time in more than two years, when the incident took place. “I just hope he’s OK, you looked at the blood and you could see he was clearly struggling and was in pain,” he said. “You’re on the beach and you think what do I do next. “It was complete confusion if I’m honest.” The surfer was taken in an ambulance to the Busselton Health Campus about 8.45am in a critical condition. He was later transferred by the RAC Rescue Helicopter to Royal Perth Hospital, with the chopper landing on Monday afternoon.