Stanwell Park Beach rescue as pink flamingo inflatable drifts near rocks but friends ready for more
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Inside the bizarre battle to rescue five ‘stranded’ companions on a giant pink flamingo, after their $700 inflatable boat began drifting onto sharp rocks
- Five friends went 1 km out to sea in a giant pink flamingo
- Jet ski rescues needed when inflatable approached rocks
- Undeterred companions and plan to take flamingo to sea again
Surf lifeguards need to be ready for any emergency and that includes even the rogue giant pink flamingos.
Five mates who carried the 5-metre-wide inflatable one kilometer out to sea on Australia Day spoke of their joyous rescue after it had to be towed back to Stanwell Park Beach, between Sydney and Wollongong on the New Wales south coast of the South.
The unusual craft, which cost the group $700, had begun drifting onto sharp rocks when lifeguards realized the five companions needed rescuing whether they wanted to or not.
Flamingo owners Blake and Kyle Lisk and their friends Mitch Loveday, Tye Barnes and Jayden Raval admitted they had gone a little further than initially planned.
Five men were brought back to shore on Australia Day after their giant pink flamingo inflatable appeared to be having trouble.
Blake, who lives in Wollongong, said the group used swim fins to propel the flamingo past breaking waves, but then the shark buoy became an irresistibly attractive mooring point.
“We went out into the west wind and went about a kilometer with the shark buoy,” Blake, 24, told the Daily telegraph.
“We spent a while there, but unfortunately we didn’t see any sharks.”
The flamingo, which was dubbed the HMAS Flamingo, was an impulse buy made by Blake and Kyle when they were “bored out of our brains” during the Covid lockdowns.
“It was pretty expensive, about $700, so Kyle and I paid half of it, but we never got it out of the box until the holiday after Mitch called and asked if we still had the flamingo,” Blake said.
The five meter wide and three meter high float proved to be a stable platform once out at sea for friends to enjoy a beer, cheese and crackers.
After an attempt to tow the flamingo failed, the men returned to the beach on jet skis.
They were so comfortable on the flamingo that they turned down an offer to be towed back to shore by a police boat.
However, when the wind picked up, the flamingo began heading south at a speed that made lifeguards nervous because the large bird was heading for the rocks.
After an initial failed attempt to tow the flamingo and those on board back to shore, the five men were ferried to the sand on jet skis before bringing in the inflatable.
“If you were on the beach yesterday morning you would have seen this now infamous giant flamingo heading south faster than we think they anticipated,” the Helensburgh-Stanwell Park Surf Life Saving Club posted on Facebook.
The ‘infamous’ pink flamingo sits safe and sound on the beach after Australia Day party
Blake, however, insisted that the matter was under control.
“The original (and executed) plan was to float from Stanwell Park to Shark Buoy, then have the NE wind pick us up and push us to Coalcliff (beach),” he told lifeguards.
Coalcliff surf lifeguard Rob Deakin said the rescue was “precautionary” on a busy day when 71 other rescues were made.
Blake called the trip a “great display” and said the group was considering buying an even bigger inflatable for another “adventure.”
Blake Lisk (pictured) said the flamingo excursion went as planned despite all five men being rescued.