Local Hero, Courage and Bravery – Andrew Payne. Photo by McKinnon Photography
The unthinkable might have happened had Andrew Payne not been in the right place at the right time.
Last August, the Courtenay man jumped into the rapids at Nymph Falls and saved two young girls who had slipped into a dangerous part of the river known as the grotto, where water funnels in from the top and stirs inside like a washing machine.
Payne was with friends, Cole Howey and Steve Tobacca, but had separated. Tobacca was with his daughter Austyn, 11, and her friend Jayden, seven. They were walking across the river when one of the girls slipped. Both were sucked into the grotto.
“They had been underwater (chest level) about five minutes,” said Payne, a retired member of the military who did tours of duty in Afghanistan and Dubai.
He dove underneath the current and came up underneath the rocks. When he reached an air pocket, the girls were holding each other and screaming, huddled in a spot the size of a car tire.
“That’s the only thing that saved them,” Payne said. “All around them, it’s just undertow with water shooting in.”
He managed to reach the girls on his second attempt.
The back of Jayden’s head was split open. As she bear-hugged Payne, he went underneath the water, and back up and under the falls, grabbed a rock and walked part way across the rapids while holding her. Then he jumped out of the waterfalls, where Howey and others could grab them. Payne jumped in a second time and rescued Austyn using the same procedure.
For risking his own skin, Payne has won the 2016 Local Hero award in the Courage and Bravery division.
He was also awarded a silver medal of bravery from the B.C./Yukon branch of the Lifesaving Society.
Payne was to receive a second silver medal of bravery from the Royal Canadian Humane Association at a May 31 ceremony at the RCMP headquarters in Vancouver.
“I’m super grateful,” Payne said. “I’m just glad I was able to help. Just having them healthy and injury-free — that’s all you can ask for.”
age: 33
workplace: retired member of the military
lives: Courtenay
family: single
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