Tragedy on the NSW south coast

The Canberra Times reported this sad news. The culprit of this sad case is not freaque wave but an equally dreadful rip-current: 

A distraught wife has told how her husband died saving their two young sons from drowning on the NSW south coast, on what should have been the last week of a family holiday.

British man Andrew Priestley, 44, managed to keep the two boys - Matthew, 12, and Daniel, 10 - afloat long enough for others to reach them and drag them to safety. But he was unable to stay above the waves himself and his body was later found floating face down.

Priestley, a businessman from Market Harborough in Leicestershire, had been on a three-week driving holiday from Sydney to Melbourne with his wife, Amanda, and their children when they decided to stop at Burrill Beach, near Ulladulla.

Mrs Priestley said the tragedy began to unfold about midday on Friday, when her husband and the two boys entered an inlet leading to the open sea for a swim while she stayed on the beach with their eight-year-old daughter, Amelia.  

When Matthew and Daniel began to be dragged underwater by a rip, they started to scream. Priestley, who was in the sea himself, reached the boys, held them above the waves and lifted them onto a surfboard, allowing other beach users to pull them to safety.

By the time they came back for Andrew, he had been washed away by these terrible rip currents. His body was found face down in the water. "He died a hero.'' according to his father-in-law. Nevertheless it seems to be an unnecessary loss of an ordinarily could be avoidable case, what a waste!