Beachgoers need new approach to swim safety

Lifeguard director Matt Mannington said it's the rip which runs near the most popular spot at Ocean Beach which has the most serious consequences. Photo / File

Hawke's Bay beachgoers are being urged to take more caution around water - with two drownings in the space of a week, and new research showing rips may be more complex than once thought.

Last year there was one non-preventable drowning in Hawke's Bay. In 2016 there were six preventable drownings. Already this summer two lives have been lost in Hawke's Bay water bodies.

Westshore Surf Lifesaving director lifeguarding Brian Quirk said people needed to start taking more care around waterways.

"This is probably one of the worst starts to a summer in Hawke's Bay I've known in many, many years.

"We need to start thinking about what we're doing a bit more, [patrols] can only be there at certain times and certainly if you're swimming out of hours you've got to take a heck of a lot more care."

Hawke's Bay surf lifesavers have said while there are a number of factors which can lead to people getting into difficulty in the water, rips are among the worst.

Rips - strong currents of water that run out to sea - remain one of the biggest dangers to people on the country's coasts.

Around 85 per cent of the average 1200 rescues lifeguards make each year involve them.

Now new research by Surf Life Saving New Zealand and the University of Waikato has shown rip currents are more complex than thought.

Results from the high-tech pilot study undertaken at a popular Mt Maunganui beach revealed a pair of headland rips that drained the beach from each end, with several open coast rips between.

SLNZ national lifesaving and education manager Allan Mundy said suprisingly about half of the drifters - GPS-tracking dummies - dropped into the headland rip floated off in a completely unexpected direction.

This beach is one of a growing number of beaches around the world known to feature circular currents, in which rips come back to shore, rather than going out to sea as thought.

Although just the start of the research, Mr Mundy said this could impact on the age old advice given to swimmers - to swim to the side of a rip if caught in one.

At this stage that advice was still valid, however he said the best thing for a swimmer in trouble to do was to float on their back. Not only does this save energy, it can make them calmer, and buy precious time for rescuers.

The research will continue, with drifters distributed to beaches around New Zealand. It is unknown if any beaches in Hawke's Bay will receive them.

There are five patrolled beaches in Hawke's Bay, each coming with their own risks.

At Ocean Beach Kiwi Surf Lifesaving Club, lifeguarding director Matt Mannington said they had a channel which ran about 20m off the beach, where the bed dropped off then came back to a shallow sandbar, before dropping off again.

"That's typically where we have the most problems because it drops off above your head after being relatively shallow," he said.

There was a rip which ran out near a small creek in front of the carpark. It's proximity, and calm appearance meant a lot of people swam there when "it's probably one of the most dangerous areas on the beach".

Although there were more incidents involving the channel, "people who step off into the holes get into a bit of trouble and they're either helped out by the swimmers or us".

"The rips are the ones where we have the most serious incidents."

Westshore was "pretty safe", Mr Quirk said, although recent dredging near the beach meant flash rips had begun appearing.

"Most of them are nothing too bad but there's one or two of them that are fairly big," he said.

"They're not a massive danger but you need to have a good look … if you look and there's a stream of dirty water going out to sea it doesn't make any sense to swim in it. Apart from that the beach is pretty safe."

Pacific Surf Life Saving Club chairwoman Emma Hubbard said they did not experience rips due to the nature, and coastline of Marine Parade.

Although it can be calm, offshore winds mean the coastline is known for large swells, and unpredictable waves which could knock people off their feet, and have been known to snatch people by the water's edge.

Ms Hubbard said it was always better to swim between the flags, not overestimate your ability, and stay out of the water if the waves were too big.