Mangawhai Heads Surf Life Saving Club volunteers on patrol for summer

Mangawhai Heads Surf Life Saving club co-captain Luke Watkinson (left) and club president Jon Drucker are getting busy now that official patrols began last weekend. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Northland's volunteer lifeguards are back in action after the first official patrols started last weekend. Northern Advocate reporter Adam Pearse and photographer Michael Cunningham go out to the Mangawhai Heads Surf Lifesaving Club to talk to some lifeguards ahead of the busy summer season.

In the day of a volunteer lifeguard, a quiet beach can turn into a life-threatening crisis in the blink of an eye.

That situation will be what most Northland lifeguards will hope to avoid this summer after official surf life saving club patrols began last weekend, with swimmers are starting to flock to the region's beaches.

During the busy summer days, there is always someone on hand to help at the Mangawhai Heads Surf Life Saving club. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Overseeing what would likely be one of the busiest beaches in Northland this summer, more than a dozen volunteer lifeguards gathered in the Mangawhai Heads Surf Life Saving clubrooms on Saturday morning to begin their silly season.

A volunteer lifeguard service at Mangawhai started in 1963, six years before its iconic clubrooms were built. Mere metres from the water, the wide deck gives an unobstructed, 180-degree view of about 1.5km of coastline.

While Mangawhai isn't the most renowned surf beach in Northland, it certainly has an unusual factor which makes it one of the most difficult coastlines to monitor as a lifeguard.

In front of the clubrooms, the beach is split in two by Head Rock. On the left as you look from the beach is the most popular swimming area and, on the right, is the estuary from which boats travel out and over the Mangawhai bar.

Head Rock in Mangawhai has seen its fair share of incidents with swimmers and boaties. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Crossing the bar is difficult at the best of times, so lifeguards can face some tough scenarios when they have swimmers in trouble on the left and boaties in strife on the right.

How to cross Mangawhai bar safely:

• Seek local advice on the bar and channels
• Check the weather, tide and bar conditions
• Make sure hatches and equipment are adequately secured
• Monitor conditions and approach the bar at moderate speed
• Communicate to coastguard before and after crossing the bar
• If in doubt, don't go out

Two men who have dealt with plenty of these situations are club president Jon Drucker and club co-captain Luke Watkinson.

Jon Drucker, who has been a lifeguard for 43 years, is hoping his surf life saving team will be proactive this summer in identifying potential hazards in the water. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Drucker, 59, has been a lifeguard at Mangawhai for the past seven years but, before that, spent 35 years as a lifeguard in California in the United States.

Watkinson, 19, is in his fourth season as a Mangawhai Heads lifeguard. Growing up in Auckland, Watkinson has been coming up to Mangawhai since he was a baby and now considers himself part of the community.

Luke Watkinson, 18, is in his fourth season with the club and has a real love for surf life saving. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Both men are key figures in a tight-knit volunteer group which gathered for the first time last Saturday. About 10 lifeguards, mostly between the ages of 14 and 16, were rostered on for their first 11am-4pm shift of the summer.

Drucker, who had been president for four years, said he was glad to see the number of lifeguards so high after years of struggling to get just one person on duty.

"We really focused on getting new members in the last few years and it's starting to show because we are getting more," he said.

Some of the club's younger lifeguard recruits went on a run, swim, run exercise last Saturday to keep up their fitness. Photo / Michael Cunningham

"Between the junior surf programme and outreach to local high schools, we've been able to attract volunteers here and bolster our numbers to the point where we have good, solid patrols, which is a great achievement."

Watkinson, who had played water polo to a regional level, said he saw surf life saving as good way to put his experience in the water to use.

"It was just something extra to put on top, actually put the skills to use and help out, whether it's rescuing people or helping the club, it's been really good," he said.

"[Mangawhai] is a beautiful beach community and it's a real privilege to be able to serve the community here."

Volunteer lifeguards, Nathan Stuart (left) and Billy Whelan race to launch the IRB. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The club's patch covers about 20km, as far north as Bream Tail and as far south as Te Arai. However, its lifeguards mainly monitor the 1.5km stretch of beach which covers most swimmers and boats crossing the bar.

Both Drucker and Watkinson have had their fair share of close calls while on duty, which epitomises the sudden dangers a beach can provide.

Lifeguard Ben McCardle keeps his eyes fixed on the surf. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Drucker said these dangers were shown perfectly in an incident two years ago when, in a matter of seconds, a rip tore through the entire flagged area, sucking all the swimmers out from the shore and requiring a mass rescue of about a dozen people.

While Watkinson hadn't attended many incidents involving distressed swimmers, he was once called upon to save a boat which had run out of fuel and was drifting dangerously towards Head Rock.

Experienced lifeguard Mike Ardern will be a good source of knowledge for the younger ones. Photo / Michael Cunningham

After these types of incidents, Drucker said the club had adopted a proactive style, nipping out potential hazards before they occur noticeablely reducing the number of incidents.

"A lot of people come to the beach and think where the waves are breaking is dangerous and where the waves aren't breaking is safer," Drucker said.

"But if the waves aren't breaking that often means there's a hole there and a current, so it's about people not understanding and overestimating their abilities."

Jon Drucker's beach safety tips:

• If there's a patrol, swim between the flags
• If lifeguards are on duty, go and talk to them
• Swim with other people
• Don't overestimate your abilities
• When in doubt, don't go out.

Mangawhai Heads lifeguard Billy Whelan was the first out of the water last Saturday. Photo / Michael Cunningham

While he acknowledged the immense responsibility of being a lifeguard, Drucker said the passion he first realised for surf life saving as a 17-year-old hadn't waned.

"It's one of the few things if you're trained properly you can go and save somebody's life without necessarily putting your life in danger," he said.

"When I graduated from university with a degree in science, I became a permanent lifeguard instead of getting a job because that's where the passion was and here I am 43 years later, still doing it."

Glorious summer days are on the cards for the team at the Mangawhai Heads Surf Life Saving club. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Watkinson said surf life saving was a perfect way to teach people of all ages how to work as a team in a high-pressure environment while also encouraging the use of initiative.

"You've just got to get in and do it, it's the best thing I've ever done.

"The skills you pick up - being an IRB driver, first aid - you don't get the experiences in anything else I've tried so far."