Rescues double for some Bay clubs this summer

Shaun Smith on patrol at Papamoa Surf Club.

Bay lifeguards performed a record number of rescues this summer season - with one club having a 156 per cent increase in those saved from potential tragedy.

Surf life saving officials say there have been plenty of near misses, with some beachgoers still failing to swim between the flags or over-estimating their ability to cope in the strong surf and getting into difficulties, although there were no drownings.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand provisional 2014/2015 statistics provided to the Bay of Plenty Times revealed there were a 348 rescues across the six lifeguard clubs from Mount Maunganui to Whangamata - more than double the number in the 2013/2014 summer period.

Mount Maunganui recorded 105 rescues compared with 54 last summer, including 21 people pulled from the surf on Christmas Day within two hours, while Omanu had 84 rescues - five times the number last patrol season.

There were 50 rescues at Papamoa Beach, compared with three rescues last summer. There were 27 at Pukehina, four at Maketu, 33 at Waihi Beach and 45 at Whangamata.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand eastern region spokesman Alan Mundy told the Bay of Plenty Times a combination of fantastic weather, huge numbers of people at the beaches, plus the sea conditions contributed to the increase. Mr Mundy said the sea conditions had been ferocious at times, with a big trough running the whole length of the coast, which had fed into rips and currents.

But there were definitely a couple of cases which were blimmin' close. Another couple of minutes and it would have been quite a different story.

Shaun Smith

"While there were only very small swells most days, it was quite deceiving for the public, especially those who were unfamiliar with the beach and not strong swimmers," he said.

Most lifeguards had chosen to continue patrolling beyond the normal 5pm clock-off time because of the large volume of people still on beaches, and heading into the surf, and that would have also contributed to some of the increase in rescues, he said.

Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service general manager Glenn Bradley said he attributed the increase in rescues this summer to two key contributing factors.

"Firstly, a slightly better summer overall weather-wise than last year, which brought far more people to the beach, and secondly during the very busy Christmas/New Year period, the beach along the stretch of coast from Grove Ave to Clyde St/Crossroads developed a number of guts, holes and rips - more than we have ever seen in recent years."

Lifeguards had "doubled their efforts" travelling the beach on roaming patrols looking out for swimmers, amassing 8146 patrol hours this summer, an increase of 705 hours.

People were generally well behaved but there was always some people who chose not to swim between the flags and those who definitely need to learn what a rip looks like," he said.

Papamoa beach Surf Lifesaving Club patrol captain Shaun Smith said it was fantastic to be able to say there had been no drownings this summer.

"But there were definitely a couple of cases which were blimmin' close.

"Another couple of minutes and it would have been quite a different story."

Mr Smith said some beachgoers continued to underestimate the risks and over estimate their abilities to cope in the surf, especially some teenage males.

Patrolling a large stretch of beach was never easy and even on Easter Friday there were 40-50 people swimming between the flags and another 200 or so on other parts of the beach

Dennis Mundy, Omanu Beach Surf Lifesaving Club director of lifeguards, said this season was quite different than last, which had been quite wet and colder including the sea temperature.

Mr Mundy said his club had taken a proactive approach by doing more roaming patrols.