The 24-year-old Culburra man was standing on Ike Beach filming the waves as a woman started to struggle in the water, the surfer racing into the ocean to save her.

Wright was in Hawaii with his wife, and his sister Tyler, the pair also aiding throughout the rescue.

In a video posted to his Instagram page, Wright dashed into the ocean as bystanders feared for the woman's life.

The surfer has been praised as a hero, however he told Channel Nine's Today show he was simply helping a woman out.

"I was on my phone then passed my phone to my wife, and I was like 'grab my phone, this person is going to need saving' and I dropped my beer and ripped my camera out of my pocket, took my shirt off and had to jump the fence," he said.

"From when we first seen it, to when we realised it was going to be really bad, it was only a matter of seconds."

Wright had also spoken with the American Broadcasting Corporation, saying "I just knew that she needed help. This lady was in a very tricky situation. Even for a confident person in the water, that's not somewhere you want to be."

He said the situation had gone from "zero to 100 really quick and she was in a lot of danger".

"As soon as I got to her I just said hey we're going to be okay."

While Mikey was quick to downplay the situation, Tyler said the rescue was a sign of her brother's advanced ocean skills.

"Look, it was an intense situation, but he is a water man, this is what we have been doing since we were kids. We have surf life saving skills," she told the Today Show.

The surging waves took a number of people off their feet, including the rescuers, but Tyler called warnings to Mikey when the hammering swell was coming.

"At that point, I knew the way he was positioning himself was to take take the full impact of the rocks and copping the waves, so I wasn't too worried.

"At that point, the concern was for the woman and how long she had left before she would really start to struggle." Mikey said the woman's son gave him a tight hug following the rescue.