By Andrea FERRARI

NEARLY drowning during a swim that started as a paddle in Boambee Creek Reserve and ended with her rescue over a kilometre out to sea on Sunday 19 February, Aldwyn Altuney is calling for danger warning signs to be put up at the Reserve.

She also urged for City of Coffs Harbour to take down a statement on its website saying Boambee Creek Reserve is a great place to take small children to swim, which it promptly did, adjusting its wording to say the reserve offers shallow water for smaller children and playground facilities, with advice consistent with the information on the Coffs Coast website.

With these suggested warnings in hand, Aldwyn is also contemplating what she gained from the experience.

“I had to go with the flow and not fight the circumstances and tap into my deep breathing,” Aldwyn told News Of The Area.

“You can’t be a control freak when waves are washing over you and pulling you out to sea.

“Your brain is trying to focus on staying calm and not thinking about whether there’s sharks out there with you,” she said.

49-year-old Aldwyn thanks her years of practicing yoga, breathwork, and having a faith that helped her manage what could have been an energy-sapping panic attack and probable drowning.

Brought up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches at Manly, having lived in Coffs Harbour in the late ‘90s and now living on the Gold Coast, Aldwyn is well aware of ocean safety and has experienced a rip or two in her life. 

However, relaxing on the shores of Boambee Creek Reserve on a sunny Sunday with her friends, where she was enjoying floating out into the shallow water, there was nothing to warn her not to swim.

“Once I’d floated out a bit a massive wave came from nowhere, sand was pulled from under me, and it just kept going wave after wave and pulling me out.

“I knew the first thing to do was to stay calm and go with the flow, but there will be many people who either don’t know that or just lose it and panic.

“They would have drowned.

“As my mind went into the idea of sharks, I knew I had to push those thoughts out and concentrate on trust and faith.

“A saying that I kept in my head was ‘everything is in divine order’, even though you may not feel it, I had to think it.

“I was facing my mortality out there.”

Squinting to the far-off shore, Aldwyn could see her friend Daniel driving his 4WD down the beach to alert two jet skiers he’d seen earlier.

Her rescue mission was in play.

First on the rescue scene was Shane, who was on Boambee Beach with his family and, fortuitously, a longboard.

It was a long paddle out but he arrived to Aldwyn who’d been treading water and floating for more than 45 minutes.

Hanging onto the board, she nearly tipped him off, but together they stabilised and soon father-and-son jet skiers Rod and Flynn Saville arrived.

“The first thing she asked me was ‘are there sharks out here?’” Rod told NOTA.

“I had to say, ‘yes…sorry darling, you’re in the ocean here’.

“She was OK but a bit in shock.”

Hanging on tight to Rod’s jet ski, Aldwyn was dispatched to the beach, her waiting friends, the ambos and police, and it was here she let loose her emotions.

“I bawled my eyes out.

“I’d been thinking, if it’s my time to go then so be it, to help me keep calm.”

As a business and personal development coach, the reason Aldwyn was in Coffs Harbour last weekend was to run a masterclass, along with Angelique Pellegrino, coaching individuals on opening their mind to flourish.

Covering the correlation between spirituality and psychology, how to clear mind blocks and learning how to reduce stress, amongst other empowering life skills, both Aldwyn and Angelique feel this near-drowning experience was ‘meant to be’.

“Everything works for you, not to you,” said Aldwyn, sharing a philosophy she now wants everyone to learn and apply to their own experience, readying themselves for those sudden hiccups that come at us from “out of nowhere”.