KEY POINTS:
Father-of-four Ross Melles lay on North Piha beach, on Auckland's wild west coast, without a pulse or heartbeat after being pulled from the water last weekend.
He was resuscitated by members of the United North Piha Surf Lifesaving Club joined by a paramedic and a doctor visiting the beach.
Lifeguards and swimmers dragged his lifeless body from the water after he was spotted drifting towards rocks, face down.
"All I remember is what started off being a calm situation suddenly almost ended my life," said Melles, who teaches history at Liston College in West Auckland.
"I can swim but a rip was pulling me towards the rocks. I tried swimming against the current, but I was getting nowhere."
Melles said he flipped on to his back to save energy but knew he was in trouble.
"I wouldn't describe it as panic. I just thought, 'This is bad. I've got to do something about this'," he explained.
"I went through a series of thought processes but at that stage I was swallowing water and stuff and I blacked out. It did flash through my mind that 'this is it'."
Despite being unconscious for about half an hour, his only injuries are bruised ribs from CPR.
"The next thing I remember, I was being jostled into the ambulance," he said. "It was my wife, daughter and friends who were watching it happen, so I guess it was worse for them."
Lifeguard Rob Pidgeon was part of the team that saved Melles' life. "It was pretty fraught out there for a while. He was unresponsive for about 15 minutes so we knew how serious it was.
"We suggested that all swimmers get out of the water while we worked on him. When he started to respond, that was the best feeling. It was a good operation by everyone involved."
Melles says the incident was a "defining point" in his life.
"It completely throws into perspective everything about your life. You think that you don't really want to waste your time.
"I can't say that St Peter was waiting for me, neither were there lights at the end of the tunnel.
"But I do feel blessed by God that there happened to be a doctor and paramedic there as well as the lifeguards. It was a team effort. I have nothing but admiration for them."
Twenty-two lives have been lost on the west coast in the past decade.
Living near Bethells Beach, further up the coast, Melles and his family are used to rips and ferocious surf, and he's not planning on avoiding the beach.
"It's funny, because my first instinct is to get back in. You can't let things like that scare you off, that's life."
