A dramatic beach rescue took place on the South Island on Sunday.
A dog, determined to catch some geese, ignored his owner’s calls to come back and ran into the water at McNeill Bay, located in Oak Bay and got swept up in the current.
His owner jumped in but also got caught up in the strong current.
Neighbours eventually heard the dog’s owner yelling and hopped on a stand-up paddle-board.
Paddle boarders eventually made their way to the owner, who was about 200 feet from shore and had been swimming for about half an hour.
They then managed to scare the geese away, corralled the dog, rescued the man and brought them back to shore.
“I think his dog was just swimming after the geese, and wouldn’t listen to him, so he went swimming after him, and there was a bit of current and it’s cold water, so he was getting pretty cold,” John Watterson, who jumped in and saved and man, told CHEK News.
Members from both the Oak Bay Police Department and the Oak Bay Fire Department arrived on scene just as the man and dog were being paddled to shore.
In the end, everyone was just fine, but neighbours told CHEK News these kinds of incidents happen more than people might think.
CHEK News
