A group of surfers from New Jersey are being hailed as heroes this week after they came together to rescue a deer who was struggling to swim in the freezing cold ocean.

Sam Halprin, 17, said afterwards that he could not believe his eyes when he saw the deer struggling to stay afloat in the water.

“I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s a deer,’” Sam said. “I gave him a couple of pushes and he started swimming away from me faster and headed in toward the beach, and then he got pushed by a couple of waves.”

As Sam paddled out to save the deer, another surfer soon joined him.

“He ran right up and grabbed him and started carrying him like he was a dog,” Sam explained.

The surfer who grabbed the deer has since been identified as Princeton University student Alexander Fish.

“It was making a lot of noises. Obviously it had water stuck in its lungs,” Alexander said.

The two surfers were able to get the deer back onshore in a rescue that took around thirty minutes. Once the animal was back inland, he immediately ran back into the woods. We can only imagine how grateful he was to the two young men for rescuing him!

Social media users have been praising both Sam and Alexander for their heroic deed. Many would have ignored the deer in the water, but these two boys decided to instead go above and beyond to save the creature. Find out more about the rescue in the video below!