Surf clubs may be lost to the sea
The cost of fighting coastal erosion and sea-level rise is threatening the future of New Zealand’s surf life saving clubs, with some already being forced to retreat to survive.
Surf Life Saving New Zealand national life saving manager Allan Mundy said clubs were facing an uphill battle to protect their facilities, and he predicted many would consider closing rather than fighting nature.
That would result in fewer lifeguards patrolling beaches, putting the safety of swimmers at greater risk.
‘‘Our whole country is now in the process where we are considering things like retreating [from the coast],’’ he said.
‘‘At the moment, that is only affecting a couple of clubs but I anticipate we will start to see communities backing off and, ultimately, some clubs will cease to exist.’’
The cost of moving or upgrading facilities would likely be too great for many clubs, which relied heavily on community support, Mundy said. ‘‘Our main concern is clubs will not be able to afford it. They will put it in the ‘too hard’ basket, shut up shop and move off the beach.’’
At Sunset Beach, in Port Waikato, 50 metres of beach had been lost in the past decade, said Malcolm Beattie, president of Sunset Beach Surf Life Saving Club.
‘‘The rescue towers we have had to move three times and now the public hall, which used to be our old clubhouse, had to be demolished last weekend.
‘‘The council demolished it . . . because it was at risk.’’
The club was having to hire a temporary building for the summer because it no longer had any rescue towers on the beach. ‘‘[The rescue tower] was the centre of our rescue operations. We don’t have one now,’’ Beattie said.
The beach was becoming more dangerous with new rips forming, and erosion creating a steep cliff down to the beach.
‘‘At full tide, the sea has been pounding the bank. So it is unsafe, even at high tide, for people to walk on the beach.’’
Beattie said the club was facing an uncertain future.
‘‘We are 30 metres to 40m away from the edge at the moment. If you take it at that basis, we have got about 20 years if we have to move again,
and we are working on the basis that we won’t have to. But nobody can predict it.’’
The cheapest and most effective safeguard against impending weather events is dune planting, which strengthened the sand dunes and, in some cases, even enhanced them.
However, that was not necessarily feasible on all beaches, with some – such as Paekãkãriki Surf Life Saving Club, north of Wellington – more exposed to dangers like fast-flowing currents.
Paekãkãriki club committee member Matt Warren said the club, which had lost up to 10m of beach over the past two years, needed to move back 100m from the coast in order to survive, at a cost of up to $3 million.
‘‘We will have to do a lot of fundraising and we will look for a lot of community and trust funding support for that.’’
The erosion meant winter tides had caused the club’s boat ramp to collapse, with the area now fenced off to protect beachgoers from debris, Warren said.
There was also no public walkway to the beach, so people were instead jumping straight on to the sand dunes and causing further damage.
The club planned to create a temporary track to allow beach access. Warren said because of the condition of the current building, it was better to demolish it and build a new one instead. The club hoped to start construction by 2021.
‘‘We are back from the beach more than we would like but that is nobody’s fault – it is just nature.’’
At Titahi Bay, in Porirua, the local surf life saving club is building a seawall to replace a temporary wall that was damaged during a storm last year.
Club chairman John Wesley-Smith said every dollar spent on building was money that could be better spent on safety equipment needed to save lives.
‘‘We had to pay for all of that with grant money and fundraising, and we are looking at tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars.’’
Brian Quirk, director of education at the Westshore Surf Life Saving Club in Napier, said he had seen a radical change in the beach, where Hawke’s Bay Regional Council had built a stopbank, about 1km long, to slow erosion and protect the club.
‘‘With the height of the stopbank above the beach, you can’t actually see the beach from the club and you have always got to make sure you have got someone down the front who is keeping an eye on things.’’
He described the stopbank as a ‘‘sacrificial’’ defence from the sea.
‘‘Every year, they restore it, they put more metal and stuff in and it gets washed in. We have got to think about our long-term future here and how long we are actually going to be here.’’