‘AMAZING SURVIVAL THING’

Surfer ‘a Bit of a Mess’ After Drifting at Sea for 37 Hours, Dad Says

“He was petrified,” Elliot Foote’s father said.

An Australian surfer who went missing off the coast of Indonesia on Sunday night spent 37 hours “drifting all alone” at sea before he was finally found, his father said. Elliot Foote is one of four surfers who was thrown into the water near Pinang island off Aceh during bad storms. All the surfers survived, but one Indonesian crew member was still missing as of Tuesday afternoon, according to The Guardian. Peter Foote told the newspaper it felt like a “death in the family” when he first learned his son had gone missing but that his healthy habits had likely helped him survive. “He does breathing techniques, he fasts, does ice baths, and I think that helped him survive,” Foote said. “It’s just an amazing survival thing. He looks a bit of a mess but he’s OK. He just got a few cuts on his side, maybe from the boat.”