How to stay safe in the water this summer and what to do if you get into trouble

Thursday, 26 December 2019

Stay away from rocks and rips at the beach over summer, surf lifesavers say. (Video first published in November 2019.)

Surf lifesavers are pleading with people to only swim at patrolled beaches after 16 people died in the water last summer, and two people died on Christmas Day this year.

Lifeguards performed 702 rescues throughout the country during the 2018/19 summer, Surf Life Saving NZ said.

This year, northern region life saving manager Ari Peach said more beaches were being patrolled to make beach trips safer.

Being in the water was always risky, Peach said, but dangers included rip currents, being out of your depth and unsupervised children.

Lifeguards will be patrolling Auckland's most popular beaches this summer, including Piha.

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With strong swells and rocky areas, west coast beaches like Piha and Muriwai were the most dangerous.

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With strong swells and rocky areas, west coast beaches such as Piha and Muriwai were the most dangerous, he said.

People also tended to rockfish more at those beaches, something lifeguards did not recommend.

Surf Life Saving northern region manager Ari Peach.

'It's a really risky activity and unfortunately we continue to lose people to drowning from rockfishing on the west coast of Auckland.

'If you do want to go rockfish on the west coast, you should go with somebody else, somebody who knows how to do it.

'The key message is to always wear a life jacket, not go alone and assess the conditions before you go.'

Ari Peach said rockfishing was very dangerous and life guards were taking measures to teach fishermen how to stay safe.

Peach said the appeal of fishing seemed to tempt people even when conditions were poor.

'We recently had a rockfisherman at Whatipu drown. It appears that he wasn't wearing a life jacket.

'Scenarios like that are really disappointing.'

Peach said Whatipu Beach was one of the beaches not patrolled by lifeguards.

He recommended people choose nearby Karekare Beach, which was patrolled, to swim at instead.

It was important to get help from a lifeguard on the beach if you noticed someone in trouble in the water, Peach said.

If the beach was not patrolled, the first thing to do was call 111 and ask for police who could alert nearby surf clubs.

Peach said people tended to panic when they got in trouble in the water.

He said people caught in a rip should relax, put their arm up to signal for help, on their back and ride the rip.

Auckland Council website SafeSwim was a safety tool people could use before heading to any beach, Peach said.

Whangaparāoa Primary School students form the number 702 to showcase the number of rescues done last summer and the number of fatalities

As well as water quality information, it had specific safety messages for each beach.

It was also a good way to find out if the beach people wanted to go to was patrolled or not. If it was patrolled, the website would list the time of day lifeguards would be there.

NZ'S MOST DANGEROUS BEACHES

Five Auckland beaches are among the 10 most dangerous in New Zealand, according to Surf Life Saving New Zealand.

The ranking was based on the number of rescues carried out in the past year.

Muriwai (the second most dangerous beach), Bethells (the fourth) and Piha (the sixth) had 82 rescues between them in the 2018/19 period.

Kariaotahi in Waiuku was ranked eighth and Pakiri Beach on the Hibiscus Coast was ranked ninth.

Waikato's Sunset Beach was named New Zealand's most dangerous beach, with 40 rescues.