Daredevil teens plunge into rough ocean waters to cool off in sweltering Australian heat
Video has emerged of a group of fearless teens taking dangerous plunge off a rock shelf and into the ocean, just managing to stay afloat amid the brutal whitewash and crashing waves.
Their adventure at Avoca Beach, located just north of Sydney, was captured on camera by Jacob Strickling.
In the footage, the boys can be seen thrashing in the waters in an attempt to get back onto land. The large waves make it hard for them to gain their footing, at and at one point they are sucked under for up to 10 seconds.
An older man, who strikes up a conversation with the filmer and says he use to come here 30 years ago, is seen giving one of the struggling teens a hand up out of the water.
Strickling told Newsflare that the teens were all good swimmers and suffered only minor bruising, cuts and abrasions. But Avoca Beach has in the last few years been the site of tragedy – in 2015, a man drowned in an unpatrolled area. A young woman also drowned in 2012 after being swept off the rocks.
Just last week, two children had CPR performed on them and were hospitalised before being released with a clean bill of health.
The teens were hoping to gain some respite from the brutally hot summer. A heat wave is currently sweeping across Australia, with the past four days being the country's top ten warmest days on record. In the town of Tarcoola, South Australia, the temperature reached a high of 49 degrees Celsius.
