Lions fans save each other at dangerous Coromandel beach

Trust Waikato Hot Water Beach Lifeguard Services chairman, Gary Hinds, says a touring Lions fan, from England, was lucky to survive after being swept out in a rip yesterday. Photo/File

Relatives of a desperate Lions fan could only stand by in horror as the man was swept out into a rip at a notorious Coromandel beach.

But it wasn't Hot Water Beach lifesavers to the rescue this time, rather a pair of separately touring eagle-eyed Lions fans who noticed the 34-year-old's dire predicament.

Hot Water Beach chairman Gary Hinds said if it wasn't for the Australian-based English tourists' quick actions, the English tourist would never have survived.

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the beach!! Gary got a call from a local at HWB at 3pm to say that they could...

Posted by Trust Waikato Hot Water Beach Lifeguard Service Inc on Thursday, 6 July 2017

He says the rescue is one of two this week, and one of 14 at the beach over the past two months.

Hinds said he got a call about 3pm yesterday from a Hot Water Beach local who could see two people on rescue boards out at sea.

They'd initially heard a person yelling about 400m out at sea and watched as two people jumped on rescue boards and went to out to help him.

Hinds said the man, who was an accomplished swimmer, was at the beach with his uncle who couldn't swim and couldn't dive in to help him.

However, instead, two fellow Lions supporters were watching what was going on and were standing next to a shed which had rescue boards.

The 29-year-old woman and 35-year-old man, who are both currently living in Australia, grabbed the boards and managed to make their way out to the man and bring him back in.

"By then he'd started losing his strength ... he could actually swim but the first thing he did was try swimming straight back into the beach."

Hinds said it was a good reminder for people that to get out of a rip, they need to swim across it until they're amongst the waves.

He said the beach had been flooded with more tourists than usual because of the Lions tour.

"We've had heaps, even yesterday when I was there, we had probably 50 or 60 of them with their red jackets ... the amount of them coming through either side of the test games is phenomenal."

Hinds said the man "didn't do too much wrong" apart from not keeping an eye on the waves and trying to swim back into the rip.

"Talking to him afterwards he was in just over knee-deep in water one minute and the next minute he's being sucked out the back of a rip because he had been caught in a rock and been sucked out."

The two groups of tourists plan to catch up for a beer in Auckland this weekend, he said.

Hinds said the surf club was stuck in a frustrating position by a lack of funds for lifeguards.

While the Waikato Regional Council paid enough funding until the school holidays, he was frustrated and claimed that despite raking in tens of thousands of dollars from the beach car park, the Thames-Coromandel District Council never donated any funds to the surf club.

"They're making close to $100,000 out of the pay and display car park ... for another $40,000 we can get funding for lifeguards for nine months of the year."

He said now that we're next to host the America's Cup, he didn't believe it would get any quieter on the Peninsula especially given the Government's push for more tourists in the off-peak season.

Lifeguards come back on duty in October.