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A dispute has flared between Piha lifeguards and a surfing instructor after eight children, some as young as 11, were taken into a rip and a three-metre swell during a lesson.
The children were with the Piha Surf School when emergency services were called to the West Coast beach after being told about 5.30pm that the students were in danger.
Lifeguards took a boy from the water, and the other children swam to the shore.
None of the students had any injuries, but Piha lifeguards say the children were put in unnecessary danger.
Lifeguard Duncan Clarke said the children should never have been taken into the rough conditions.
"I cannot believe he took them out in that. There was a three-metre swell and he took them into a notorious rip. It's completely unbelievable.
"When I pulled up I was in total disbelief and just started counting heads and thought this could only end badly."
Henderson senior sergeant Chris Whitehead said police attended the incident but would not be taking the matter further.
He said it was a misunderstanding between the surfing school and the lifeguards who thought the students were drowning.
Piha Surf School instructor, Phil Wallis, said his students were never in danger.
He and his 19-year-old son had taken them into a rip so they could learn how to get out of it.
"It was an exercise that we were doing ... We'd gone over it on the beach and they were never in danger."
Mr Wallis said the boy who was pulled into the lifeguards' boat did not need to be rescued.
But Mr Clarke said lifeguards thought the children were caught in a rip, and scrambled to rescue them before any of the leg-straps attaching them to buoyant surfboards snapped and the current pulled them under.
"They were terrified, you could see it in their faces. It's incredible no one was hurt."
The lifeguard was filming for the television show Piha Rescue and said the cameras filmed a large wave hitting the students and Mr Wallis calling to his son on the rocks for help.
Mr Wallis said he whistled to his son for assistance, but not because any of the students were in danger.
The lifeguard in charge, Jonathon Webber, agreed with Mr Clarke.
He said Mr Wallis should not have taken the children out when it was getting dark and into a notoriously dangerous patch of water.
"The parents should know they don't have to let their kids go out when it's dangerous like that.
"All the other surf schools around here cancelled their lessons because it was too dangerous."
