Surf club of the week: Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club

Jake Cowdrey, 19, keeps a close watch on beach and surf. Photo/George Novak

The sun is up, the beach is busy and people are swimming between the flags - that is a good day for the Papamoa lifeguards.

But as soon as someone looks to be in trouble in the water, the Papamoa lifeguards are quick to move from the tower to the beach.

Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club chairman Andrew Hitchfield said the safety of beachgoers was the lifeguards' priority.

Hitchfield said the club had about 140 volunteer lifeguards who carried out between 4000 and 5000 hours of lifeguarding every season.

The Papamoa lifeguards had been called to more than 200 rescues in the last eight years and handled 2000 to 3000 preventative actions on the beach last year, he said.

If someone was not swimming between the flags or was swimming near a rip, it was the Papamoa lifeguards' job to encourage them back to safety.

Hitchfield said the club was 27 years old and had started with 90 members in 1990.

"We have had huge growth in Papamoa in the last 10 years and we now have a membership of about 800 which is great," he said.

The club also had a large junior surf contingent of about 300-400 junior surf members who were taught by 15 volunteer coaches.

"A lot of our lifeguards have come through the system who become rookie lifeguards," Hitchfield said. And they were award-winning rookie lifeguards too.

The club has held the Eastern Region Rookie Lifeguard of the Year for four to five years.

"We are very strong in nurturing our local kids from junior surf sports to rookie lifeguards. Once they become lifeguards they're in it for life," Hitchfield said.

Two of their athletes were in the New Zealand Black Fins Surf Lifesaving team, with Papamoa coach Matt Cairns also the coach of the Junior Black Fins.

Hitchfield said there was a strong community presence at the club. "There are some who have been at the club for many years," Hitchfield said. "We are on to our second and third generations coming through the club."

Hitchfield said Papamoa was one of the fastest growing suburbs with people moving to the area to connect with the coast.