Surf lifesavers and ambulance staff could not resuscitate a Dunedin man after he got into trouble in the water at St Clair beach last night.
The 40-year-old, whose name has not been released, was boogie boarding in the Dunedin coast surf with his 14-year-old son at about 8.30pm when "he
appeared to get into some difficulty," Senior Sergeant Bruce Duncan of Dunedin police said.
Several onlookers swam out to help the man and St Clair Surf Lifesaving members managed to get him back to shore. However, resuscitation attempts by the lifesavers and ambulance staff failed and he was pronounced dead at the beach.
Mr Duncan said the man's son swam ashore on his own. It was not known why the man had trouble but a post mortem was being carried out today.
The case has been referred to the coroner.
The man is the eighth person who is presumed drowned this holiday season. His death follows that of John Graham Ginders, 23, who was swimming at the quarry end of Lake Pupuke, between Takapuna and Milford on the North Shore on Sunday.
Mr Ginders went under water at about 5.30pm but did not resurface. His body was found a short time later.
Wanganui man Terry Tika Henare Eruera, 30, disappeared on Boxing Day after getting into trouble at Mosquito Point on the Whanganui River. The search for his body continues.
Iosa Wayne Upu Sa, 19, jumped off a cliff at Lawyer's Head near Dunedin on December 23, after he was thought to have robbed an elderly woman at knifepoint in her south Dunedin home. His body has also not been found.
The body of Matthew Robert Bevin, 25, was found by volunteer searchers about 8pm on Saturday.
Mr Bevin went missing in Lake Waihola, 40km southwest of Dunedin, on Boxing Day after he went into the water to retrieve a hat.
A 33-year-old man also drowned on Boxing Day in the Buller River near Murchison while trying to rescue a boy stuck in some trees.
On Christmas Day a 20-month-old boy died in a family pool at Wairoa, while an 11-year-old girl drowned at Piha beach, north of Auckland.
- NZPA
