An after-hours rescue at Bondi Beach stayed with me. This is how that night led to a conversation with Julian, an overnight prototype from Bryan, and ResQVision.
The night that stayed with me.
A year before I wrote this story, something happened at Bondi Beach that changed the way I thought about lifesaving.
It was a warm Saturday evening in November 2023. We were at the Bondi Pavilion celebrating birthdays for two lifesavers. About 30 of us were on the balcony, watching the sunset in the middle of the beach.
An ambulance pulled up near the skate park at the southern end. A few of us looked around, but we could not see anyone in trouble in the water. We thought it might be a skateboarding accident and went back to chatting.
A camera showed what we had missed.
About 20–30 minutes later I headed home, just up the street, for dinner. Sirens went past. That was not unusual for Bondi, but this time I paused and opened the surf camera facing the southern end.
By then it was dark. I could see an emergency officer on the beach shining a torch over the waves. Then I saw three heads in the water, sometimes disappearing beneath the surface.
The three teenagers were rescued. One was brought out unconscious.
Watch the original report about the November 2023 rescue.
What stayed with me was how close we had been. There were trained lifesavers nearby, but we had not known those teenagers needed help. I kept thinking about the gap between something happening and the right people knowing.
This was the incident that inspired the idea. ResQVision did not exist at the time and played no part in that rescue.
A conversation became a prototype.
I spoke with my friend Julian Kovacek, an engineer who understood the question I could not shake: could the camera view help people notice what mattered sooner?
Julian spoke with Bryan Pakulski. Bryan built a prototype overnight. It was an early demonstration, but it gave the three of us something concrete to work on.
We connected over our shared interest in technology and our love for the ocean. That was the beginning of ResQVision.
Why the human decision matters.
I am a lifesaver. Prevention, public education and the people responding to an incident are central to how I think about this work.
The question is practical: how can an existing view give those people useful information and context? A camera observation needs to reach someone who can review it and decide what happens next.
The story continues.
This account was originally published on 18 November 2024. Since then, the work has grown into ResQVision’s support for SAIL with Surf Life Saving NSW, including AI software, alerting integration, server setup, testing and technical support.
If you work around the water, manage a coastal area or have a sensor view you would like to make more useful, contact us. Start with the observation your team needs to make.
Adapted from my original account of 18 November 2024, with the original photographs restored on 5 October 2026. Follow the linked delivery and capability pages for the work today.
Read the original public source
