Unaware that he was saving the heir to the Danish throne, Nick Malcolm rushed into the water on Thursday after spotting the boy was in trouble while swimming just offshore at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Prince Christian of Denmark, the eldest son of Princess Mary and Prince Frederick, was plucked from the surf by lifeguard Nick Malcolm while swimming with his family, 7 News Queensland has reported. Photo: 7 News Queensland 
 
 She, her husband and her four children were all swimming between the flags at the time. and the boy jumped on and away they went… He was fine and his parents thanked the lifeguards as they left the beach. About 20 people die each year due to rips across Australia; in Queensland, 78 people have drowned at beaches in the past decade. The royal family, including Prince Christian and his three younger siblings, have been holidaying in Queensland and will travel to the island state of Tasmania to visit Princess Mary’s family. In January 2014, Mr Malcolm helped to save the life of another tourist at the same beach.
– A lifeguard on Australia's Gold Coast saved a 10-year-old boy from rough waters Thursday, except it wasn't just any 10-year-old boy: It was Denmark's Prince Christian, on vacation with his family, 7 News Australia reports. The young heir to the throne was caught in a riptide at Queensland's Mermaid Beach, and when Nick Malcolm saw the boy struggling, he dove into the ocean, per the Telegraph. Chief lifeguard Warren Young says that Christian, the son of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, was a "good little swimmer" who was hanging out in the lifeguard-monitored area between beach flags and who didn't freak out as he started getting dragged into deeper waters. Malcolm paddled out on his board, pulled the boy up, and brought him back to shore. "We got [the prince] before it got too serious, but he wouldn't have come back in" without Malcolm, another of the lifeguard's supervisors tells 7 News. Prince Frederik, who had been swimming nearby with Princess Mary and Christian's three siblings, personally thanked Malcolm, a native New Zealander, the Times notes. But Malcolm didn't realize at first who was doing the thanking. "He didn't know who it was until someone said, 'Oh, that was the royal family from Denmark,' and Nick said, 'Oh, OK,'" Young tells the Telegraph. This wasn't Malcolm's first beach save, either: In January 2014, he pulled a 68-year-old tourist from the water and helped with lifesaving efforts until medics arrived, the Brisbane Times reports. (A Florida lifeguard was fired for saving a drowning man.)