Lifeguards back on duty for summer

Lifeguards will be back patrolling Northland surf beaches from this weekend, including Ruakaka, Ocean Beach, Waipu, Mangawhai and Ahipara. Photo / Tania Whyte

The increasing popularity of Northland beaches has Surf Lifesaving NZ expecting an even busier season for lifeguards in the region this summer.

Five Northland surf beaches - Ruakaka, Ocean Beach, Waipu, Mangawhai and Ahipara - will be patrolled by volunteer lifeguards every weekend from Saturday until the start of the busy summer holiday period when the beaches - along with Baylys Beach near Dargaville - will also be patrolled during the week by paid lifeguards.

Last summer, lifeguards at the five main beaches performed 98 rescues, 168 first aid treatments, 27 searches and 4152 preventative actions to stop a drowning - some of the highest totals ever.

This summer, Bream Bay lifeguards have a new weapon in their armoury to prevent tragedy - a $25,000 specially modified jetski that was bought after a fundraising campaign by the Northern Advocate and Whangarei Lions clubs.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand's club development manager northern region, David Butt, said the jetski - which will hopefully be ready to start duty on Saturday - would help save lives. Referring to last summer, he said: "As well as those (statistics), we also had two drownings (in Bream Bay) and the jetski will be based in Bream Bay to patrol along the coastline and call into beaches when needed."

The five main beaches will be patrolled on weekends from 11am to 4pm until the start of December when the patrol time will be extended to 5pm.

Then a week before Christmas, Ruakaka and Ocean Beach will be patrolled daily for six weeks; Mangawhai for eight weeks; Waipu for seven weeks; Ahipara for three weeks and Baylys Beach for three weeks. Matapouri will not be patrolled this summer because of a lack of lifeguard numbers.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand CEO Paul Dalton says most drownings occurred at unpatrolled beaches.

There were eight drownings at beaches in January alone, just under the total number of beach drownings for all of 2014.

Overall, 90 people - mostly men and including eight pre-school children - drowned in New Zealand last year.

Last year, 12 people died in Northland waters, two fewer than in 2013.