Surfer saves tourists from deadly rip

Ahipara local Jesse Gordon at Shipwreck Bay, where he rescued two tourists. Photo / Supplied

A German tourist desperately clung to the surfboard of a Northland surfer after he came to the rescue of her and a companion caught in a dangerous rip.

Jesse Gordon, 28, and his father were loading a boat on a trailer at Shipwreck Bay, 17km southeast of Kaitaia, about 5pm on Tuesday when he spotted three people swimming close to the beach.

A few minutes later he saw they had been pulled offshore about 100 metres.

"I just noticed they were trying to swim against the current, and I surf there all the time and you're never going to do it," Mr Gordon said.

The Ahipara local ran to his mother's house and grabbed his brother's new surfboard.

By the time he got back, one of the swimmers, a man, had managed to get himself out of the rip.

Mr Gordon made his way out to the man and woman, German tourists in their 20s, who were trying to fight the current to reach the beach.

As he reached the woman, she collapsed on to his surfboard. She was exhausted. They had been out there for about 20 minutes and likely had only a few more minutes of energy left in her, Mr Gordon said.

"They were definitely competent swimmers but they were getting tired," he said.

"If you don't know to go with it, then you're just fighting a battle you can't win."

Mr Gordon told the pair they needed to go with the current and get up on some rocks nearby, but they were initially reluctant.

The pair swam and used his surfboard as a flotation device to get to the rocks.

"She was like 'do you reckon I'm going to make it?' and I was like 'of course we're going to make it'," Mr Gordon said.

Once back at the beach, the pair thanked him for coming to their rescue, with the man calling him their "angel".

Neither the tourists, who were taken home by locals they were staying with, nor Mr Gordon required medical attention.

Now Mr Gordon says there should be a sign on the beach warning about the rip, with a contact number for the local surf lifesaving club. Last year 12 people died in Northland waters, two fewer than in 2013, but there have been six suspected drownings already this year in the region.