Bystanders tells of man swept out to sea

A man on a lilo was swept up to 300m out to sea at Papamoa as strong offshore winds buffeted the coast.

The young man had been swimming with an air mattress near the Te Ara Place section of the beach about 4.40pm yesterday.

Papamoa bach owner John Younger said he had been walking along the beach when he saw the man, he estimated to be about 18-to-19 years old, on the mattress.

"He tipped off and he tried to swim toward it but it was going out to sea faster than he was because of the winds offshore. He couldn't catch up to it.

"Then he tried swimming back in but the winds were too strong."

The man had been swept about 200 to 300m, Mr Younger said.

A stand up paddleboarder headed out to the man and brought him back in.

The man held onto the rear of the board as the paddleboarder headed in.

"It took them a long time to get back to shore because of the wind."

Mr Younger said the air mattress had disappeared on the horizon.

"I think it will end up on Motiti Island," he said.

Mr Younger said the man appeared to be with two friends and he believed they called the police, who arrived minutes later.

Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club dispatched an inflatable rescue boat to help save the man, who made it safely back to shore. The Bay of Plenty Times understands he was not hurt. Lifeguard Nathan Smith said it was common for light water objects to be blown out to sea whenever there were offshore winds.

"Things like lilos, floaty boards, etc, they get blown out to sea and so do the people on them. It's a matter of not using floating things when the winds are up," he said.

Mr Smith said it was common knowledge among regular beach goers but there were some people unaware and ended up in trouble. The Metservice warned of southwest winds of 20 knots as of yesterday afternoon.

Metservice forecaster Mike O'Connor said Tauranga Airport recorded gusts of about 60km/h.

"That still gusts of 32 knots. That's still quite strong. It's not phenomenal, just a pretty solid southwest wind."

Mr O'Connor said New Zealand was experiencing winds from a high sitting over by the Tasman Sea.