In a harrowing incident off the coast of Australia, an experienced swimmer’s routine morning body surfing session turned potentially deadly after riptides took him out to sea. Fortunately, 49-year-old Rick Shearman remembered the SOS feature on his Apple Watch Ultra. Using it led to a dramatic helicopter rescue that saved his life on July 13, 2024.
Update: Apple Australia’s YouTube channel posted a new video Thursday, below, dramatizing Shearman’s rescue. It recreates his desperate SOS call, his struggles amid huge swells and the dramatic relief when the rescue helicopter appears overhead. The video only lasts a minute, but by the end, with music swelling, it might bring you to tears.
Apple Watch SOS feature leads to swimmer’s dramatic helicopter rescue at sea (new video below)
Just when it seemed like Apple Watch’s life-saving ways were losing their novelty — so many heart alerts and hard falls — along comes a dramatic new twist. A swimmer treading water in rough seas more than half a mile off Byron Bay’s Tallow Beach in New South Wales repeatedly failed to find a safe channel to swim ashore amid rampant riptides that kept pushing him farther out. But this story doesn’t end in a drowning — thanks to Apple Watch and its Emergency SOS feature, according to an ABC North Coast report.
Despite his experience as a swimmer and surfer, Shearman found himself overwhelmed by the ocean’s power. After being held under by large waves and beginning to panic, he made the crucial decision to use his Apple Watch’s emergency function.
Treading water, swimmer called up SOS on his Apple Watch
Photo: Surf Life Saving NSW
“It became clear after about 20 minutes that I wasn’t going to make it back in and I needed some assistance,” Shearman recounted. With no one on the beach aware of his predicament, the smart device on his wrist became his lifeline.
While treading water in challenging conditions, Shearman activated the SOS feature on his Apple Watch. It connected him to emergency services via Australia’s 9-1-1, “0-0-0.” Despite the difficulties of communicating while being buffeted by wind and waves, he managed to stay on the line for an hour, guiding rescuers to his location.
“If it wasn’t for being able to access that service in my watch, I’d probably be bobbing out somewhere in international waters by now,” Shearman said, emphasizing the critical role the Apple Watch Ultra played in his rescue.
Apple Watch greatly reduced search time
Photo: Surf Life Saving NSW
The Apple Watch’s SOS function proved to be a game-changer, according to Jimmy Keogh from Surf Life Saving Far North Coast.
“The search area for the person in the water with the conditions that we had, it would have been a pretty substantial search area involving multi agencies that could have gone one for days,” Keogh said.
A rescue helicopter eventually winched Shearman to safety, thanks to precise location data provided by his Apple Watch Ultra. This incident highlights the potential life-saving capabilities of wearable technology in emergency situations, especially in remote or challenging environments.
Following his rescue, Shearman expressed gratitude toward all involved in the operation. He also acknowledged the power of technology in saving his life.
“I underestimated it,” he said, referring to ocean conditions that day. “It’s amazing that I was able to use that technology to save my life.”
This post originally published on July 15, 2024. We republished it to add Apple’s new video on April 11, 2025.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
