I would have become a classic drowning statistic - male, middle-aged, venturing unsafely out of my comfort zone, writes Craig Cooper. Photo / NZME
I would have become a classic drowning statistic - male, middle-aged, venturing unsafely out of my comfort zone, writes Craig Cooper. Photo / NZME
OPINION:
One summer, I nearly drowned.
It was not peaceful.
It did not feel like it was going to be a good way to go.
I would have become a classic drowning statistic - male, middle-aged, venturing unsafely out of my comfort zone with my crude head-above-water swimming style.
Somehow, I floated on my back and eventually hit a sandspit.
The experience was partly the reason that a few years later, I entered a triathlon, knowing I would need swimming lessons before I could complete it.
I swam two kilometres in the race. Despite the achievement, I retain a healthy fear and respect for water.
The day I nearly drowned, the water looked inviting, as the sea off Marine Parade in Napier often does on a hot summer’s day.
But it doesn’t take much of a swell for the idiosyncratic beach break to become dangerous.
Craig Cooper. Photo / NZME
If you’re local, learned to swim at an early age and have Marine Parade experience, maybe you won’t think much of it.
If you were raised in a region with waves that actually break before they reach shore, on a seabed that gradually deepens, then Marine Parade’s beach break, steep drop-off and currents can be terrifying. Lose your footing in the shingle, and it’s easy to get knocked over.
For years, the signage at Marine Parade warning of its dangers has been inadequate.
A little like the fictitious tourist town of Amity, in the movie Jaws, it seemed Napier didn’t want too much publicity about the dangers of Marine Parade.
Just over a year ago, in December 2021, a five-year-old boy drowned at Marine Parade.
The investigation into his death was referred to a coroner, and it will be surprising if warning signs and water safety education are not mentioned when the report is made public.
Marine Parade is like the uncle everyone avoids at Christmas. Or the worker that gets away with inappropriate conduct, but who has been around for years.
“That’s just Marine Parade,” people say.
Well, Marine Parade is dangerous and gets away with murder.
After the tragedy in December 2021, Napier City Council erected more signs warning of the dangers of the beach’s drop-off and currents.
Permanent signs were later added to bring Marine Parade up to ‘international standards’.
PR gobbledegook at the time referenced a Marine Parade Water Safety Signage Report, a component of a wider Coastal Risk Assessment carried out by Surf Life Saving New Zealand, and Surf Life Saving New Zealand’s A Guide to Beach Safety Signs in New Zealand, which sees standardised signage throughout the country.
When someone with half a brain and half a conscience could have stood on Marine Parade years earlier and said, ‘This isn’t good enough’.
As it was, in late November 2022, the Napier City Council - backed by Surf Life Saving opinion - finally came out and said it: “Marine Parade beach is completely unsafe for swimming.”
As we enter the drowning season, lifeguards now patrol Hardinge Rd, and have left Marine Parade, as so few people swim there.
Perhaps a non-traditional patrol of two lifeguards on a quad bike patrolling Napier down to Awatoto could have stayed, handing out friendly safety advice.
We are a coastal country - it’s not revelatory to say that every child in New Zealand should be taught to swim, and how to survive in a rip or current.
It’s common sense. And in the case of Napier, local school kids should be taught about the dangers of Marine Parade.
Because people will still swim there.
* Craig Cooper is a former Hawke’s Bay Today editor. He writes a weekly column called Reverse Spin - his take on life in the Bay.
