THE first shout of the year saw Bude Lifeboat crew attend to a stranded surfer off Black Rock’s shore at Widemouth Bay.

They attended a call at 1.15pm on Saturday to reports of a surfer in difficulty approximately 200 metres out to sea.

The lifeboat crew went out to meet the surfer and was helmed by Mike Tame and crewed by twin brothers James and Daniel Lewis-Bale.

This was Daniel’s first service launch.

The volunteer RNLI crew quickly located the casualty and recovered him, and his board —while maneuvering a 4-6ft swell.

After a quick casualty assessment was carried out the crew returned the surfer safely inshore to the beach at Widemouth Bay.

Mike Tame, Bude lifeboat helm, said: “The casualty did the right thing in his situation by remaining calm and staying with his surfboard; this meant that he was easier to locate but most importantly this would keep a tired/exhausted surfer afloat.

“The alarm was raised by the surfer’s friends, who were on the beach, and he later thanked us for our quick and professional response.

“This was our first shout of the year and it was good to see a newly qualified crew member completing his first service.”

After returning the casualty to shore the inshore lifeboat ‘George Bird’ returned to the station at 2pm.

This year will mark 50 years of the return of a lifeboat to Bude and to celebrate there will be an open day over the Easter Bank Holiday.

For more information on the RNLI please visit www.rnli.org.uk