TWO young paddleboarders were reunited with their mother thanks to the quick actions of the emergency services.

Burnham-on-Sea RNLI were paged by Milford Haven Coastguard at 2.31pm on Sunday (August 9) after two female body-boarders were reported floundering in the mud trying to reach the water on a dropping tide at Brean beach.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the RNLI has adopted several changes to protect its volunteer crews including holding training sessions about PPE procedures.

When the crew was paged they had just returned from two consecutive training sessions involving launch and recoveries.

Burnham’s D class lifeboat Burnham Reach was speedily re-launched to the scene just past Berrow wreck where they liaised with a Coastguard rescue team to persuade the two girls to get further to the water’s edge.

The two girls were quickly pulled aboard the lifeboat by RNLI volunteers but the water was low and the mud was too soft to prevent them being dropped off ashore.

Fortunately BARB Search and Rescue had also been paged and was able to transport the girls safely back to shore in their hovercraft.

The RNLI’s D class lifeboat crew returned to Burnham slipway with the girl’s body-boards.

D Class lifeboat helmsman Nathan Meager said: “The mud was extremely soft and sticky, and the hovercraft was able to take the two girls (young teenagers) easily back to the shore.

“We dropped off the body-boards in the care of Burnham Coastguard, who reciprocated by returning our casualty lifejackets back to the lifeboat station.”

A spokesperson for BARB added: “The two young ladies had been trying stand-up paddle boarding for the first time and unfortunately had got into difficulty in the mud on the falling tide. They had tried to get back to shore but the mud proved to be too sticky to make any progress.

“The BARB team worked alongside the Burnham Coastguards and the lifeboat crew to carry out a safe casualty transfer from boat to hovercraft and then fly them back to a very worried, tearful and relieved mum who was very emotional watching on.

“This was another great multi-agency incident, working together with a very positive outcome.”