Hawke's Bay beachgoers are being urged to take more caution around water - with two drownings in the space of a week, and new research showing rips may be more complex than once thought.
Last year there was one non-preventable drowning in Hawke's Bay. In 2016 there were six preventable drownings. Already this summer two lives have been lost in Hawke's Bay water bodies.
Westshore Surf Lifesaving director lifeguarding Brian Quirk said people needed to start taking more care around waterways.
"This is probably one of the worst starts to a summer in Hawke's Bay I've known in many, many years.
"We need to start thinking about what we're doing a bit more, [patrols] can only be there at certain times and certainly if you're swimming out of hours you've got to take a heck of a lot more care."
Hawke's Bay surf lifesavers have said while there are a number of factors which can lead to people getting into difficulty in the water, rips are among the worst.
Rips - strong currents of water that run out to sea - remain one of the biggest dangers to people on the country's coasts.
Around 85 per cent of the average 1200 rescues lifeguards make each year involve them.
Now new research by Surf Life Saving New Zealand and the University of Waikato has shown rip currents are more complex than thought.
Results from the high-tech pilot study undertaken at a popular Mt Maunganui beach revealed a pair of headland rips that drained the beach from each end, with several open coast rips between.
SLNZ national lifesaving and education manager Allan Mundy said suprisingly about half of the drifters - GPS-tracking dummies - dropped into the headland rip floated off in a completely unexpected direction.
This beach is one of a growing number of beaches around the world known to feature circular currents, in which rips come back to shore, rather than going out to sea as thought.
Although just the start of the research, Mr Mundy said this could impact on the age old advice given to swimmers - to swim to the side of a rip if caught in one.
At this stage that advice was still valid, however he said the best thing for a swimmer in trouble to do was to float on their back. Not only does this save energy, it can make them calmer, and buy precious time for rescuers.
The research will continue, with drifters distributed to beaches around New Zealand. It is unknown if any beaches in Hawke's Bay will receive them.