Missing Surfer Found Stranded on Remote Island in Australia

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Jul 10, 2025 12:45 PM ET

A real-life Cast Away situation unfolded in Australia, on Wednesday, as a teenage surfer was lost at sea, and wound up marooned on an island eight miles off the coast.

Darcy Deefholts, 19, went surfing at Wooli beach in New South Wales on Wednesday afternoon. When he didn’t come home come nightfall, his family began sounding the alarm. In an urgent plea for help, Darcy’s father wrote on Facebook: “Of course we are fearing the worst … We are overwhelmed by the community efforts in the search so far. There is only one thing we want now – our beloved boy to be found safe.”

Thus, a multi-agency search ensued. And miraculously – “one in a million,” the father called it – Darcy was found on North Solitary Island the following morning.

By calculating the tides and winds, rescue crews made the assumption that Darcy had been swept out to the remote island off the coast. And their calculations were correct. After spending the night on the island, Darcy was found around 9:00am the next day.

"It's kind of surreal,” Darcy’s father, Terry, told ABC. “I was at the point of thinking the absolute worst. I didn't give up hope, but jeez I was close.”

Speculating as to what had happened, how Darcy wound up so far out to sea, then literally marooned on an uninhabited island, family member Melissa Smith said:

"He'd obviously gone out too far on his longboard and he couldn't get back. He's a survivor, a strong boy, he would have known that was a safe place I guess."

Now, reports are that Darcy is back with his family, getting checked out in the hospital, and in good spirits. A local sign reporting the good news read:

“Darcy has been found! F yeah.”

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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