Founded in 2018 by local rescue veteran Quentin Power, in collaboration with his brother Brendon Power, the Station 41 reins were handed over to Mike Bishop in 2022, who’d been with the station since its inception. Mike started his Sea Rescue career in Port Edward, 2004, and later relocated to Ballito.
Run by a devoted crew, motivated by the desire to serve and give back to their community, the station is “forging ahead with training and developing its members, as well as recruiting new candidates”, says Mike. He cites the KwaZulu-Natal floods as his most memorable rescue operation: “Watching buildings collapse, and evacuating people from mud encased dwellings, was probably the most intense rescue I've been involved in.”
Volunteer At This Station
At 06h15, Saturday, 31 January, NSRI Ballito duty crew and IPSS Medical Rescue were activated to respond to Salmon Bay ski-boat club following reports of a male spear-fisherman injured in a boating accident at Christmas Bay.
At 06h20 on Friday, 2 January, NSRI Ballito duty crew and the KwaZulu-Natal surf rescue network were activated following reports from IPSS Search and Rescue of a search operation in progress at Thompsons Beach, Ballito. A 40-year-old male, reportedly from Carolina, Mpumalanga, had gone missing in the surf zone.
Mike Bishop, NSRI Ballito station commander, said: At 06h04, Saturday, 20 December, NSRI Ballito were alerted by NSRI EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) of a SafeTrx emergency alert activation from a local jet-ski skipper.
Etienne van Zyl, NSRI Durban station commander, said: At 15h47, Wednesday, 17 December, NSRI Durban, NSRI Ballito and NSRI Umhlanga duty crews were activated following a request for assistance from eThekwini lifeguards, on the KZN Surf Rescue Network, at Umdloti Main Beach, North of Durban, where lifeguards were searching for a 17 year old male teenager (believed to be a local) who had gone missing in the water after the lifeguards had rescued 2 bathers, both males, ages 18 and 19, from the water, after all 3 bathers had got into difficulties in the surf zone - offshore of the Umdloti tidal pool.
This April, a small but tenacious crew moved into their new base building, finally giving them a place to call home.
NSRI commend a Good Samaritan, a male, who we believe rescued 2 children at Casuarina Beach on Sunday, 10 March.
At 17h24, Wednesday, 12 July, NSRI Ballito duty crew were activated following reports of a drowning in progress in the sea in front of Emberton Way, Ballito.
This month, Stations 40 (St Lucia), 41 (Ballito), 42 (Kleinmond) and 43 (Port Nolloth) all celebrated five years since they were founded. We caught up with their station commanders to find out how they’re faring.
At 13h34, Thursday, 12 January, NSRI Ballito duty crew were activated following reports of 3 men overdue on their fishing ski-boat.