Life-saving teens the heroes of Bay Patrol

‘Lifeguarding’s not all fun and games.” Truer words have never been spoken on the telly in New Zealand. They were uttered by young lifeguard Georgia on Mount Maunganui beach in the first airing of TV3’S new series Bay Patrol on Wednesday night.

The show follows surf lifesavers working along Tauranga’s 20 or so kilometres of golden ocean beach – from increasingly populated

Pa¯ pa¯ moa East to the jewel in our crown, Mount main beach.

Where predecessor Piha Rescue was all moody and wild, Bay Patrol is awash with hyper-saturated summer colour.

What I’m saying is: We, the Bay, look bloody good up there, team.

Well, not me. I spent summer bouncing between air conditioned rooms at home and work. I remember none of these sunsoaked coastal dreamscapes.

When I did fancy a swim, I headed inland to the Lakes district after a parade of shark sightings at home in Tauranga.

I know they’ve always been there and my fear was probably no more justified this year than any other, but damned if I didn’t feel vindicated when, minutes into Bay Patrol, we meet “Jimmy”.

Jimmy is apparently lifeguard radio code for shark. “Men in grey suits” is another less efficient alias allegedly used.

In this case, Jimmy – papped from the air as he moseyed around Moturiki – stayed far enough offshore not to be a threat to the boogie-boarding masses.

The show moves swiftly from a shark sighting to a missing kid.

The most striking thing about this sequence was the emotional burden lifeguards – predominantly young people – are taking on when they put on those yellow shirts.

Some of them are really young, just teenagers, and are taking charge of incredibly charged situations, coaxing information from panicking parents who believe their seven-year-old is lost in the surf.

“Every parent’s nightmare,” says the voiceover.

Not all fun and games, indeed. Not far from anyone’s mind would be the death of Aucklander Michael Finekifolau, 22, who died after going swimming at the beach in November.

Forgive the spoiler, but the search for the 7-year-old has a happy ending.

When the drama is over, the camera shows guards racing to scoff Weet-bix and dash around on the beach, like normal teens again, not carrying the weight of life and death and parents’ nightmares on their shoulders.

No doubt there will be more drama to come this season as our summer rewind of surf and sharks, dreams and nightmares on our home beaches continues.