Lifesavers flag beach danger

Boston, 7, Phoebe, 5, Lorena, 9, and Lillian Clark, 3, had fun while swimming and playing between the flags at Omanu Beach yesterday. Photo / George Novak

When Tracie Clark takes her children to the beach there is only one option for where they are allowed to swim - in between the surf lifesaving flags.

This weekend, there were 24 rescues along the Eastern Bay of Plenty beaches, stretching resources to the limit and forcing lifeguards to use preventative actions, such as moving flags, to keep swimmers out of danger from rips.

Ms Clark said her children had done nippers and different workshops with surf lifesaving.

"We just know it is the safest place to have the kids swimming [between the flags], where some one is keeping their eye on them. We have had a cousin taken off the rocks fishing. We are very water aware."

Omanu surf club's Allan Mundy said the Bay beaches had been very busy with people swimming outside the flags over the weekend, raising concerns for lifeguards.

Mr Mundy said the surf was seemingly small but a big trough created by the last storm ran the entire length of the coast.

"People are getting in that and the trough is feeding a number of rips, and what people are failing to recognise is the still water in the trough is actually [a] pre-sign [that] they are in the hole, which [is] feeding the rip."

Mr Mundy said if people were unsure of the water, they should head to patrolled areas.

"Those are the rescues the guards have been doing the last few days, four or five kms from the nearest patrolled area.

"Yesterday, we had binoculars trained on people 5km away, to get a boat or even a quad down there takes time, so if people are starting to get in trouble when we see them, when we get on site they are really in trouble. The clubs are patrolling 12km a club, that is a lot to ask for," he said.

Papamoa club captain Shaun Smith said they had moved about 1200 people to safer areas on the beach at Papamoa.

During the course of the weekend lifeguards moved the flags half a dozen times each day to keep up with the changing tides and rips.

Mr Smith said there was never a "safe" place to swim on the beach and surf lifesavers were constantly moving the flags as they monitored the water conditions.

"You start off the day in a nice area and as the tide goes in or out the conditions change, the beach is changing all the time. The best thing to do is stick with the lifeguards.

"People need to know their limits. Swim in between the flags. If there is a big flat ripply patch don't swim in there. You need to swim where the waves are breaking nice and even."