Boy swims 2.5 miles to save his mother, his brothers are swept into the sea:

A 13-year-old boy is credited with saving the lives of his mother and two younger brothers by swimming for an hour after the family was swept into the sea off the Australian coast.

Austin Appelbee swam 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) to shore to raise the alarm after he got into difficulties Friday with his mother Joanne Appelbee, 47, his brother Beau, 12, and his sister Grace, 8, police said.

Naturaliste Marine Rescue Commander Paul Bresland told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Austin’s efforts were “superhuman.”

“He swam, by his calculations, for the first two hours with a life jacket on,” Bresland said. “And the brave guy thought he wasn’t going to survive with a life jacket on, so he abandoned it and swam the next two hours without a life jacket.”

Austin said he initially went out to find help in an inflatable kayak that was filling with water. He abandoned the kayak and then took off his life jacket because it prevented him from swimming.

He said he tried to focus on positive thoughts as he swam for about four hours through rough seas to shore, raising the alarm at 6 p.m.

“The waves are huge and I don’t have a life jacket… I kept thinking ‘keep swimming, keep swimming,'” Austin said Tuesday. “And finally I reached the shore, hit the bottom of the beach and collapsed.”

“I didn’t think he was a hero,” Austin told the BBC. “I just did what I did.”

The family, from Perth, the state capital, were on holiday and using rented kayaks and paddleboards at their hotel around midday when rough ocean conditions and wind began to blow them out to sea.

A search helicopter found the mother and two children wearing life jackets and clinging to a paddle board at 8:30 p.m., police said. They had drifted 14 kilometers (9 miles) from Quindalup, Western Australia state, after spending up to 10 hours in the water.

“The 13-year-old boy’s actions cannot be praised enough – his determination and courage ultimately saved the lives of his mother and siblings,” Police Inspector James Bradley said in a statement.

Joanne Appelbee told reporters Tuesday that she sent her oldest son for help because she couldn’t leave the three children.

“One of the hardest decisions I had to make was telling Austin, ‘Try to get to shore and get help. This could get really serious very quickly,'” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

She said she was confident he would make it to shore, but had doubts when the sun set and help had not arrived.

“We kept a positive attitude, we were singing and joking and… we treated it like a game until the sun started to set and that’s when it got really rough. Very big waves,” he said.

Bresland, the rescue commander, told ABC the family was treading water in rough seas for hours and the mother managed to keep the other children on the paddleboard.

“Physically, she just said, ‘I’m struggling, I can’t,’ but she just said they were looking into her eyes, and she kept going and kept them together,” Bresland told ABC.

All three were shivering and Beau had lost feeling in his legs due to the cold when they were rescued, the mother said.

“I have three babies. All three of them managed to survive. That was all that mattered,” she said.

All four family members were medically evaluated but none required hospital admission.

In a social media post, Naturaliste Volunteer Marine Rescue Group praised the family, especially Austin.

“The bravery, strength and courage shown by this family was extraordinary, especially the young man who swam 4 kilometers to raise the alarm and set everything in motion,” the group wrote on Facebook.