Lifeguards busy as swimmer numbers keep on growing

Picture / Surf Life Saving New Zealand

Surf lifeguards were busier than ever this past summer as the number of people swimming in the sea continues to increase.

Preliminary figures showed the lifeguards had saved 2022 lives in the period from Labour weekend to Easter, Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) said in a statement today.

Those figures, which compared with 1709 last summer, were expected to rise as statistics were finalised.

The organisation defines as a life saved any intervention in which someone needing help has to be taken out of the water.

SLSNZ chief executive Geoff Barry said this year's numbers were the highest for the period since statistics started about 50 years ago.

"We think it's because more people are swimming," he said.

"Post-Christmas we've had big, big days at the beach. There hasn't been big surf or unusual environmental conditions."

For example, in the warm weekend of January 15 and 16 the beaches had been inundated with people.

Surf lifeguards across the country had reported huge crowds, with those in Christchurch rescuing almost as many that weekend as in the whole of last summer.

The national drowning toll was now 45 per cent lower than in 1984, but the per capita drowning rate was still twice that of Australia.

- NZPA