REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Saturday, April 18, 2004

A GOLD Coast City Council lifeguard was savagely attacked trying to do his job.

Two hours after helping rescue a man with spinal injuries from dangerous surf, the lifeguard was brutally attacked trying to keep his flagged bathing area clear of boardriders.

At noon the lifeguard, aged in

his late 20s, had followed protocol and asked multiple times for three boardriders to leave the flagged area at the Hilda Ave tower at Mermaid Beach.

His directions were ignored. He then approached the three men in the water on his rescue board to get them out of the flagged area and away from children swimming inshore.

One surfer moved, two others stayed and continued arguing. The lifeguard then threatened to enforce a council by-law whereby

he could impound dangerous craft continuously being used in flagged swimming areas.

That was when the confrontation turned really ugly.

A fight began on the beach and, while the lifeguard was wrestling with one of the boardriders on the sand, another surfer attacked from behind. The lifeguard was struck several times on the head, sustaining a nasty gash to his left eye and abrasions across his cheek and chest.

Witnesses were stunned.