Director of Westshore Surf Life Saving Club Brian Quirke. Photo / Warren Buckland
Hawke's Bay surf life savers will never want another January like the one they faced in 2018.
The year began with the drowning of Amy Jenny Brown, as she attempted to save a child on January 9.
The 35-year-old mother's body was found by searchers after she went missing near the Haumoana river mouth.
Three days later, French tourist Pierre Antoine Paludet was found dead in Awatoto.
Paludet, 32, was last seen in the Domain car park in Haumoana before his body was found by a member of the public on the beach next to the former Winstone Aggregates site on State Highway 2.
The horrible start to the year continued on January 14, as newlyweds Hemin Limbachiya and Tanvi Bhavsar were celebrating the start of the rest of their lives together, when disaster struck.
Limbachiya, 26, drowned after he and his wife were caught in a flash rip and swept out to sea at Waimarama beach.
Westshore Surf Life Saving Club, who patrols one of the most popular beaches in Napier, provided assistance at these tragic accidents, with member Taylor Dick heavily involved.
"It was not a nice experience and is terrible to have that many incidents to start the year off," said Dick.
"As far as dealing with these kinds of situations, all of our call out squad has really good support from co-ordinators. Plus, we have counselling on offer if and when we need it."
Director of Westshore Surf Life Saving Club Brian Quirke said while there hasn't been a terrific number of rescues at Westshore in recent times, club members involved in the call out squad deal with "some pretty awful situations".
"Taylor Dick is one of our top guys," he said. "He has been involved in a lot of the callouts over the last year or so and was heavily involved in what we call horror January.
"These are the bits of work that I don't think people understand that we are involved in. Those guys and girls that do it are completely volunteers."
With over 17,000 members of Surf Life Saving New Zealand, surf life saving is a "great way to get involved with the community and meet people", according to Dick.
"There are all sorts of courses available to grow your skills and stay fit," Dick added. "And, it gives you a good knowledge and skillset of water safety."
Over at Ocean Beach, membership for competitive surf lifesaving has grown in the previous 12 months.
Jamie Nichols, Ocean Beach Kiwi Life Saving member, said: "We have a fair few more competitive members in our team recently. It is the natural growth we've seen in recent years, but everyone enjoys the competitive side of it.
"Plus, it keeps you fit for the actual lifeguarding side of it. If you are fitter, then you will be better off when it comes to rescues and have a better chance of saving people.
Nichols added: "We really encourage people to do the competitive side of surf lifesaving, because it definitely helps with the lifesaving side of things."