A visiting surfer rescued two young women from a rip at Ocean Beach on Sunday evening, sparking a multiple emergency services callout the day before an after-hours emergency callout squad was launched for the area.
The local women were aged 21, and one was flown to hospital by the Northland Rescue Helicopter. Auckland surfer Mike Cooper and his partner had arrived a day ahead of schedule to stay at a nearby bach at Whangārei Heads and was the only surfer in the water.
"I was sitting out on my board and was right down the southern end when I vaguely heard someone screaming out "help, help". I looked back and there was quite a significant rip running through the middle and I saw two heads bobbing further out than I was," he said yesterday.
The ex-Muriwai lifeguard took action and paddled to where they were - up to 200m out to sea - with one of the women's faces submerging intermittently. They had been struggling for around 10-15 minutes, he believed, and were "knackered" by the time he arrived.
"One of the girls was going under. She was barely keeping her head above water and was seconds away from drowning and, thankfully her friend could tread water better than her and she was the one waving and screaming for help.
"I literally dragged her by her hair and got her on my longboard. She was semi-conscious with her eyes rolling back in her head and couldn't hold herself up. We had to keep screaming to her to hold on as she kept wobbling from side-to-side and almost falling off. Luckily her friend was much more coherent so she held on. I just told her to kick and I directed them across the rip and in through the bay."
A member of the public used the women's phone to call emergency services. By then Cooper's partner Swami Yogamani Saraswati had joined them, and they gathered towels to keep the women warm and put one into the recovery position.
"She was really grey and had swallowed a lot of water which she was throwing up," said Saraswati. "Then she started going into shock and shaking - we were really worried."
Said Cooper: "I kept saying "Stay awake" and patting her cheek and checking her pulse."
The pair and a local looked after the pair on the near-deserted beach until a team of six Whangārei Heads Volunteer Fire Brigade members arrived at the scene 20 minutes later, around 6.30pm.
Chief fire officer Paul MacDonald said they performed some first aid and monitored the woman until the rescue helicopter arrived.
The woman was flown to Whangārei Hospital and her condition was not known at edition time yesterday. However, Cooper said she had started regaining colour before she left the scene.
"Her eyes were open, she had more awareness and it was really good to see," he said.
"We have daughters and one is 21 and we are just really grateful that these two young girls didn't lose their lives."
Cooper was relieved when the helicopter arrived as he had a surfing accident at the beach three years ago when he'd dislocated his shoulder and been swum to shore by two local surfers and his brother-in-law. That day, he'd had to wait six hours for his shoulder to be put back into place.
He was also no stranger to rescues at this beach: a year ago, he and a local young female surfer rescued a group of young kids from a rip in the same area as Sunday's incident.
Ocean Beach is regarded as one of the most dangerous beaches in New Zealand and off-duty lifeguards have saved the lives of six people there in three separate incidents since the beginning of October. Two of these included the same rip involving an 11-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister, and twin brothers in their 20s.
Whangārei Heads Surf Life Saving Club emergency callout squad co-ordinator John-Michael Swannix said it was ironic the latest after-hours rescue had happened the day before a new Emergency Callout Squad was launched.
"It is going operational today [Monday] so in future, if people notice someone in trouble, they should call 111 and ask police for the surf lifeguards."
The off-duty lifeguards are alerted via a pager system to their phones. The squad is made up of 12 lifeguards, including Swannix, and another four emergency callout supporters.
Swannix said he had just left the club when Sunday's incident occurred.
"I had been patrol captain all weekend and we'd done one rescue – a man bodyboarding and one of the lifeguards swam out and assisted him back to shore.
"This past weekend has been an outgoing tide which makes rips and holes a lot more dangerous. I'd just left so, if it had been a day later [once the emergency call-out squad was launched], I would have been alerted and turned round and been straight back."
However, a very humble Cooper was grateful to be there at that moment.
"We come up three days a week every week because it's our happy place," said the self-employed landscaper. "But we don't normally come up until Monday. We were just in the right place at the right time and I just did what any other surfer, ex-lifeguard or person who is confident in the water would do."
He said one of the women had explained that they were only swimming in waist-deep water when the incident occurred.
"They hadn't been drinking, they were both really sweet girls and just didn't know about the water and the rip. We hope they are all right."
Ocean Beach is patrolled from 11am-4pm weekends until the end of December, when patrol times extend to 5pm until February. It will be patrolled weekdays from mid-December until the end of February.
If anyone would like to provide a donation towards emergency callout kits, please email funding@whvslsp.nz.
The international investigation has seen 10 arrested but a small craft is now missing.