Emergency Hero of the Year: Nick Hill

A SURF SCHOOL manager who helped to save two swimmers in trouble has been nominated for the Madmax Race Team-sponsored Emergency Hero of the Year award. Nick Hill manages Guernsey Surf School and knows the perils of the sea well.

A SURF SCHOOL manager who helped to save two swimmers in trouble has been nominated for the Madmax Race Team-sponsored Emergency Hero of the Year award.

Nick Hill manages Guernsey Surf School and knows the perils of the sea well. 

At the start of July he was called on to help others. He was nominated by his parents, Alison Merifield and David Hill, who said they were very grateful he had been able to help others.

‘On the evening of 6th July this year, Nick was at home cooking his dinner when a call from JESCC [the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre] alerting him to an unfolding emergency at Vazon Bay caused him to drop everything and head down to assist in any way he could,’ the pair said.

‘He was in the water little more than 15 minutes after receiving the emergency call and arriving before the lifeboat. His calmness and professionalism under extremely hazardous conditions ensured the safe rescue of two swimmers in trouble. 

‘Once he was satisfied that they were both in the safe hands of St John Ambulance, he headed home – after all, he had his dinner in the oven to think of.’

His parents said the first they knew about it was when they read about it in the Guernsey Press the next day.

‘Nick is a self-effacing, genuinely humble and modest young man who shuns the limelight whilst taking his responsibilities as a beach life-guard extremely seriously,’ they said.

‘He believes his actions on that night were just part of the job but we, as his parents, believe that not only the surf school, but Guernsey as a whole, are lucky to have him.’