Half an hour before Fiona Gooder died while trying to save her foster daughter at a Northland beach, she sent her husband a text saying she "was in paradise".

Surf Life Saving and long-time sponsor DHL are marking their 10-year partnership with a photography exhibition in Auckland which celebrates surf lifesavers' yellow and red uniforms.

A teenage girl caught in a rip had stopped breathing by the time lifeguards plucked her, limp and grey, from the sea.

He's won national titles and represented New Zealand, but Nick Malcolm's latest surf lifesaving achievement tops them all.

More New Zealanders will be given first-aid treatment by lifeguards for injuries such as cut feet and marine stings this summer than rescued from the water, new research shows.

A former surf lifeguard who stripped down to his boxers to rescue a drowning man is among a handful of Wellingtonians whose bravery was recognised tonight.

Efforts in one of the year's most harrowing rescue bids went unmentioned at last night's surf life-saving awards because those involved in the fatal Muriwai shark attack refused to have their names put forward.

One of the sunniest summers in more than 50 years saw almost 600 extra people rescued from NZ beaches during the patrol season compared to the year before.

Lifeguards were supposed to finish up on Northland's patrolled surf beaches yesterday, but the long summer has seen Ruakaka volunteers staying on for next weekend as well.

Lifeguards are frustrated at the lack of preparedness shown by 10 Korean fishermen who needed rescuing from a precarious position on a rock in Port Waikato.

Olympic champion Lisa Carrington picked up another national title on an extraordinary first day of the New Zealand surf lifesaving championships in Mt Maunganui.

When a scared child sought help for a man drowning at Omanu Beach, teens Josh Jarvis and Fletcher Swan called on all their lifesaving skills to haul the man to safety.

A 14-year-old rookie lifeguard has been hailed a hero after racing into the see to help three men and a child stuck in a rip.

Aucklanders' rates have given a $46 million boost to 10 rescue, safety, arts and cultural groups in the past four years and a further $14 million gift is proposed for the 2013-14 year.

Paid regional lifeguards who started patrolling five Northland beaches on December 24 will stop working at Whangarei Heads, Ruakaka and Baylys Beach today.

A police office's dramatic rescue of two boys and a man stuck in a rip at a Bay of Plenty beach is a reminder for water users to be aware of the dangers, police say.