A BEACH lifeguard from Southbourne has spoken of the moment that he rescued a girl who got into difficulty in the water during windy weather.

Alex Boutchier, 30, an RNLI lifeguard, has spoken out after the dramatic rescue was caught on camera by Carl Draper, a former Bournemouth lifeguard, as he walked up the Portman Ravine zigzag between Boscombe and Southbourne, on Sunday, August 9.

Alex, who is on his third season of lifeguarding with the RNLI, said that he watched as one of a group of teenage girls swam away from the rest, outside of the area marked by the RNLI's red and yellow flags. He saw that she was not able to swim back to safety by herself and jumped into action during a day of changeable weather.

He said: "Some of the group were stronger swimmers than the others. One of them went around the groyne in the water. I watched her the whole time as she was swimming outside of the red and yellow flags. I saw that there was a strong current, which pinned her to the groyne."

He said that it was fairly busy on the beach and the group did not appear to have any adults with them. He added that it would not have been safe for her friends to try and help the girl, as they would have put themselves in danger.

Asked how he knew that she was in difficulty, he said: "We look for visual clues. She was panicking and she was in distress, so I went out to her, brought her back and calmed her down. I checked her over and then communicated to my seniors.

"The training that we have with the RNLI is brilliant. It's great to know that we can put that into practice and then help somebody out."

Alex said that it's important that people respect the sea as it is not a controlled environment like the water in a swimming pool.

He added: "Our main thing as lifeguards is for people to swim between the red and yellow flags because the safest area to swim is in front of us."