Australian surfers leave private island resort, start journey home

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Nias, Indonesia: The Australian surfers rescued at sea in the Banyak Islands are on their way back home after the misadventure of a lifetime, sailing from their private island beach retreat on Friday to begin the journey home.

Elliot Foote, Steph Weisse, Jordan Short and Will Teagle and the rest of the party of 12 friends on holiday in Indonesia left the remote Pinang Island on the catamaran of Australian skipper Grant Richardson, one of the boatmen involved in the search for them this week.

Steph Weisse, Elliot Foote, Will Teagle and Jordan Short in the video they recorded from the island.

They were headed for Nias, a three to four-hour journey by sea, the same one they endeavoured to make last Sunday when one of the two boats they were travelling in took in water in a storm, forcing the four Australians and three Indonesian crew on board into the ocean.

A ship with the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency, Basarnas, was accompanying them to the island, from where there are direct flights to the city of Medan on Sumatra.

From there they can fly to Jakarta and onwards to Sydney to be reunited with their families.

Foote earlier told Nine’s Today program in an interview from Pinang Island of his experience being separated on his surfboard from the rest of the group before they were found floating on Tuesday.

“It was a bit rough,” he said. “I spent the night by myself trying to paddle to islands but coastal drifts don’t allow you to get close to land when you’re that fatigued.

“I had no contact other than the three others and our guys prior to being picked up by two local fishermen.

“Just not knowing if anyone else was out there, if anyone else had been picked up already or anything like that was a bit daunting.”

Teagle, meanwhile, told the show that being discovered after 36 hours missing was “the most emotional moment in my life”.

“Unfortunately, the first time the boat picked us up, we thought Elliot was on board. When we realised, he wasn’t there, that was the most heartbreaking thing that’s ever happened,” he said. “Luckily we were reunited about an hour later.”

While they begin to make their way back to Australia, rescue teams, the military and police, as well as local fishermen and boat owners, continue the search for missing Indonesian man Fivan Satria.

The 22-year-old’s two crewmates were also saved but he has not been seen since Monday.

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