Flash rip warning for beach
Paid and volunteer surf life savers kept busy responding to a number of rescues at Waitarere
Lifeguards at Waitarere Beach have been busy rescuing people from the surf due to flash rips appearing at low tide, prompting a warning from those tasked with beach safety.
Most incidents at the beach resulting in rescues in recent weeks have occurred at low tide, where strong undercurrents created by channels in the sea floor underneath the surf had caught swimmers by surprise.
There had been multiple incidents in the last week where swimmers had been assisted from the surf by lifeguards after becoming distressed.
Levin-Waitarere Beach Surf Life Saving Club committee member and lifeguard supervisor Brian Forth said the channels that caused the flash rips were low spots created before low tide by the surf.
“We work really hard to be preventative but on occasion there is a surprise, like a flash rip,” he said.
Recognising a flash rip at low tide one afternoon last week, lifeguards moved the flags to a safer spot, he said. “There’s been a bit of a wave and you usually get a stronger undertow and the channels seem to be on the outgoing low tide. It can move very quickly and drag people out,” he said.
Although the message was reinforced every summer, Forth said he couldn’t emphasise enough how important it was to swim between the flags.
The club patrols the long stretch of beach between the Hokio stream and Manawatu¯ River. They simply couldn’t watch every swimmer scattered along the 11km beach.
Forth said if a swimmer did get into trouble they had a greater chance of being rescued between the flags.
But flash rips weren’t the only thing keeping lifeguards busy at the beach, with a variety of other rescues taking place away from the flagged area, in what was a busy time for the Waitarere crew.
One rescue was further out at sea and involved a jetski that had flipped. The driver had become separated from the craft and was unable to climb back aboard.
Another rescue involved three people who were floating on a tyre inner tube and were swept out beyond the breakers, at the mercy of the sea with no means of propelling themselves back to shore.
It wasn’t just incidents on the water, either. Lifeguards also attended an accident where the driver had rolled their quad bike after hitting soft sand.
The club has three paid lifeguards on patrol on weekdays between 11am and 6pm, aided by a grant from Horowhenua District Council, while it relied on volunteers on weekends.
At their disposal were a range of rescue methods, either using the IRB, a kneeboard or swimming out with an buoyancy device.
Often time was of the essence and lifeguards used whichever method best suited the rescue.
Modesty was dangerous, too, as anyone wearing clothes in the surf was more likely to strike difficulty as clothes acted like a dead weight.