Covid slims down surf patrols

Summer’s coming but the flags are out at only some alert level 3 beaches, where lifeguards have new restrictions to work with.

One west coast Waikato club will run full patrols but with fewer life savers on the roster, while another has pared things back to observational patrols.

Full patrols will run at Sunset Beach Surf Life Saving Club in Port Waikato, as observational ones sounded like ‘‘an exercise in futility’’ to president Malcolm Beattie.

‘‘If you are standing watching people and people get into difficulty, the two of you are not going to be much good. You may as well stand around and say I am going to watch people drowning.

‘‘We believe we have a responsibility to look after the people who are coming to the beaches – and they are coming to the beaches. Since the prime minister said to everyone go out and have fun, a picnic, the crowds at our beach at Port Waikato have just gone through the roof.’’

Beattie said it would not be a normal roster of up to 15 lifeguards but restricted to 10.

‘‘We will wear face masks if we are up on the tower, but on the beach we will be there with our boats and equipment, ready to cope with any issues that arise.’’

Beattie said the club did not fully understand being limited to 10 guards.

‘‘If it takes 12 or 15 people to look after the public, then for god’s sake let’s just put on 12 to 15 people – what’s the difference?’’

The club was telling its members that being vaccinated was not yet compulsory, but to get ready for that to change.

While under ‘‘Covid patrol’’ conditions, lifeguards arrive early and talk through situations they could face.

‘‘We just have to handle people a little differently. If you’ve got to resuscitate somebody, do you want to give a person mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the beach? Don’t know, some people might not want to do that, so we’ve got to talk about these things.’’

Down in Raglan, the club was doing observational patrols from the clubhouse and beach, Raglan Surf Life Saving director David Galuszka said.

‘‘We initially won’t have a flagged area on the beach.

‘‘Obviously with Covid in the community, there’s that fine balance of do we put flags out and have lots of people in one area or not have flags and potentially put people in danger.

‘‘I think, from our perspective, if a flagged area is required we will put a flagged area up, because we would rather have people being safe in the water and prevent incidents from happening.’’

Lifeguards would be in bubbles of five, which could be expanded to 10 if needed.

Galuszka said it had been a bit of a juggle to get organised for the season, especially when restrictions stopped everyone being involved and coming out to upskill.

The board had not yet talked about lifeguards needing to be vaccinated, but it would be discussed in the near future, Galuszka said.

STUFF Lifeguards can work in bubbles of up to 10, Waikato clubs say, but that’s fewer than they’d normally have on the roster, and they’re working a bit differently.

Raglan Surf Life Saving will not start out with a flagged area on the beach under alert level 3, director David Galuszka says.