Warrior's Star presumed drowned - Sonny Fai

OMFG thats terrible news. :cry: I was looking forward to watching him play in 09.
He was such a tremendous talent and dying at such a young age.

My thoughts are definitely with the warriors and his family in this which obviously must be a really hard time.
 
Rips are so horrible. I've been caught in two that scared the living bejesus out of me.

Once I was swimming with a mate and his little brother at a pretty remote beach on the central coast without any patrol. We all got caught in a rip. We all knew we were in the rip but didn't want to admit it so we all tried to swim quietly back to shore. It was so stupid, but we all felt like we needed to focus our energy on surviving and any talk would have made us weaker. My mate and I actually had to determine whether or not we had the ability to save his little bother. To even think of having to ask ourselves that question still haunts us to this day.
In the end we hung back a little to make sure he was with us and we got out. Eventually we made it to shore and sat on the sand looking back into the ocean in complete silence and we still don't speak about it.

The other time was 2 years ago at Warriewood on the Northern Beaches. I went out on a surfboard and my mate went bodysurfing.
He got caught in a rip out of nowhere, and I just heard him yelling out my name. At first I thought he was joking but I saw him about 100m away and started paddling towards him. He was literally moving sideways at an unbelievable pace. A few waves later, the yelling stopped. I couldn't see him anywhere.
I was scared out of my mind, but kept paddling towards where I thought he was.

Nothing. No sign of him.

Eventually, I heard a scream another 100m away from where I was paddling towards.
I finally got to him and he grabbed onto the board like a mad man. He panicked so much that when we were paddling to shore he knocked me off the board. My foot was attached to the leash and I was dragged underwater while he caught waves all the way back to the sand. He had no idea that I almost drowned while trying to save him.

Rips are horrible.
 
Terrible news, especially that his family, partner and friends witnessed it all.

Having grown up at the Sunny Coast and bodyboarded for about 20 years, I've been in a few. Just remember, a rip will usually look calm, except for some turbulent water on the surface (not waves, just little peaks), it is usually sandy coloured but can look like deep green/blue (i.e. deep water), and usually you can see waves breaking on either side of it (but not into/onto it). Also, bigger swell, stronger the rip.

Always stand/sit on the beach for about 5 minutes and watch what is happening, watch the biggest waves of the set, where they break, what happens to the water, watch what happens when the water washes up onto the beach, where does it go from there, is there is sideways sweep, does the water flow out through a rip/channel back out to sea, look for a channel between the shore breakers and the waves out the back - what is the water in that deeper section doing. You'll be able to get a picture after 5-10 mins, know where to safely swim, and where the cool waves are!
 
Yeah Ghibli, I have always just looked for the "calm" spot where the waves aren't breaking, just rippling (not sure what it's called). The "exit".

Also, this is usually where the gutters are draining and is good fishing!
 
Common people lets all pray that his still alive.
Miracles happen, Sonny you are in our hearts.
What a talent, been talking him up for 2 years now and looks very humble.

"Keep the Faith"
 
Common people lets all pray that his still alive.
Miracles happen, Sonny you are in our hearts.
What a talent, been talking him up for 2 years now and looks very humble.

"Keep the Faith"
 
They still haven't found him and it's been over 24 hrs now, not good.

For his family's sack, whatever the outcome is... I hope they find him so his family & close friend's can have closure. Nothing worse than not having closure, no-one deserves that.
 
Very sad news indeed. Whatever your swimming experience you need to be very careful at the beach, anything can happen at anytime and conditions can change in the blink of an eye.

Here is to hoping is still alive out there somewhere. Thoughts with his family, friends and his footy team!
 
News coverage was surreal yesterday, some guy at Bethells Beach had been trying out his new camera that same day it happened and caught some of the drama as it happened,,, too sad,,

My schoolmate passed away almost 10 years ago now by drowning and was also an up and coming prospect like Fai...Sonny Fai was also an ex pupil of my school..scary..
 
so sad was just watching it the interviews from foxsports...they seem like there doing it tough over there, the warriors have always struck me as a really tightknit group!!!
I used to work with a lady who's son drowned...she said she was so relieved they found his body otherwise she didnt think she would ever have closure!!!
Steve Price is right tho...when ur dealing with the ocean it really dosent matter how good of a swimmer u are!!
TO YOUNG TO DIE THATS FOR SURE...LIFE IS SO PRECIOUS!!!
 
very hard to watch the vids today of his family on the beach. Watching Price starting to cry shows how close the Warriors are as a team.

I hope the Warriors play this year in his honour
 
Couldn't imagine how those players are going to deal with this tradgedy, let alone the family. As harsh and terrible as it sounds, they are pretty well just searching for a body now. Just shows that nobody is untouchable.
 
If nothing else I know I'll be a little less cocky next time I hit the beach... as this shows no ones bullet proof out there. Between the Sharks and the rips this summers definetly shown you've gotta give the ocean some real respect.
 
dukey said:
I'd love to see the Warriors take the trophy this year in tribute to Sonny.
Click to expand...

I was going to put some money on them to win the comp without this tragedy. This will only make them tighter as a bunch and not want to lose anyone else or any footy games.

Their roster is just ridiculous for 09 and I expect them to finish top 2 or 3 after the regular season
 
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