Father Liam Ryan, an Australian Catholic priest known as “the surfing priest,” has been credited with saving a father and son from drowning in the rip current at Cable Beach.
The 38-year-old priest has been hailed as a hero. This marks the second time Ryan has rescued someone from a drowning situation, after he previously saved a man from a shark attack four years ago.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on June 9, 2025, that Fr Ryan, from Our Lady Queen of Peace Cathedral Parish in Broome, Western Australia was in the water at Cable Beach, when he saw the father and son struggling to stay afloat.
“I saw a couple of fellows who looked like they were getting pretty close to where a little flash rip was,” he told ABC News Australia.
Fr Ryan paddled over to the pair after he called out to them and heard no response. They were then able to climb onto his board and be taken to safety.
The parish priest, who is also well known in the community for surfing and swimming in the open ocean, said this rescue was “a little scarier” than his first one almost five years ago.
On July 31, 2020, Ryan helped a surfer survive a shark attack at Bunker Bay in Western Australia. The priest was surfing, while on vacation visiting his best friend, when he noticed a fellow surfer — Phil Mummert — in distress.
“I saw him off his board, looking really lost, and there was half a board floating there,” Ryan told The Catholic Leader, a publication of the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
It was then that the priest noticed a large white shark, between 13 and 16 feet long, take a bite out of the man’s leg. He called for assistance, and he and a fellow surfer hoisted Mummert, who was “bleeding profusely”, onto a longboard and the two paddled him back to shore.
Fr Ryan said that once the man had been airlifted to the hospital, he sought a moment of quiet prayer in the sand dunes.
“I had a little bit of a cry and just blessed the Lord,” he said.
“There’s something deep inside you that wants to help. Christianity is built on that principle of someone giving their life for you. You come face to face with what would be one of the greatest fears for a lot of people, a lot of surfers…but what gives you strength in that moment is the grace of God.”
Fr Ryan was given an Australian Bravery Award for his heroism in 2022.
(Picture Courtesy: St John of God Midland Public Hospital)
