Eren Zehir, 16, and Sam Crawford, 15, of Port Fairy, and Beccy Koch, 15, of Adelaide, were totally unaware they were stuck in a strong current that was sweeping them out to sea on Wednesday.

Port Fairy's Brant Wolff, 37, Jimmy Conlan, 19, and Charlie Allen, 15, were surfing at The Passage when they noticed the three teens about 5.30pm.

"I could see these three kids that looked like they were nearly past the point of return," Mr Wolff said.

"They started getting sucked out further and further, so Jimmy and I swam over to them and I could tell they were starting to panic a bit. We got them onto our boards and started pulling them back towards the rocks.

"It was pretty dark and rough and we were hit by a few pretty big waves."

Eren said the trio were body surfing when disaster struck.

"We got caught in a rip and we got taken about 200 metres out to sea where there were really big waves and we got dumped," he said.

"I'm really grateful for the people who were out there and helped us, without them I wouldn't have even realised I was in danger. We are very lucky they saved us."

Sergeant Danny Brown said as he raced over the hill to The Passage, the 000 caller said they had lost sight of the three teenagers.

"I started to think that this is not going to end well," he said.

"We had SES, ambulance and marine rescue on their way as well as the police air wing on standby.

"Fortunately the surfer's quick thinking saved them. The kids didn't even know they were stuck in a rip so it's lucky that this was a populated swimming spot or it could have been a lot worse."

Beccy and Sam were transported to hospital, where they stayed overnight for observation.

Sergeant Brown said the incident came as a timely reminder to think about water safety.

"Unfortunately this was very poor decision making. When you're out in the water, things can be unpredictable and you've really got to think before you go in," he said.

"You can't always see what's happening in the water so you've got to be really careful. It's like when we talk about road safety and we say you should drive to the conditions."

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