Late in the afternoon, on a near-deserted beach on the Far North Coast of New South Wales, a man stumbles out of the waves completely naked, save for a torn black singlet.
His eyes are crusted in salt, his legs are bleeding and his skin is waterlogged.
The first people he calls out to a young couple walking along the beach hurry off in fear.
Little did they know that this man, a local deckhand known as Michael “Mick” Williams, had just performed one of the most courageous swims ever attempted by a human being.
Filmmaker Matt Blyth was travelling down the East Coast of Queensland last year when he saw a newspaper article heralding Mick’s bravery from 2008.
Blyth too had felt the pain that mother nature could wreak on families whose men chose to make a living at sea.
In 1997 Blyth’s best mate, working on a trawler with his old man, had a fit at night and fell overboard, dying almost instantly.
A conversation over the led phone led to Blyth creating “Sea Rogue”, an eclectic documentary that premiered at Port Shorts International Film Festival, winning the prestigious Jury award on its debut.
“It’s just an amazing story of survival,” Blyth told 9news.com.au.
Stephen “Steve” Eayrs is the principal investigator of project SeSAFE, a fisheries initiative to help train commercial fishermen in the art of staying safe so far out to sea.
He says a film like Sea Rogue just one of a number of films being distributed by SeSafe will help make an impact on those who believe accidents will never happen to them.
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