$50 in gas to save swimmers
Each time volunteer lifeguard Gaby Marshall heads to Port Waikato to patrol the beach it costs her about $50 in gas.
It’s a cost she’s happy to take on if it means being able to keep people safe — but in an ideal world it’s one she wouldn’t have to bear.
Surf Life Saving is a largely unfunded organisation. Each year hundreds of people are dragged from the water thanks to volunteers like Marshall who give up their time to patrol our beaches.
The 20-year-old knows firsthand how important it is we have lifeguards. As a young girl she was overly confident while swimming at Sunset Beach with a friend.
“We went swimming pretty much every day that we were there in summer. We were also both part of the junior surf programme.
“We were swimming outside the flags . . . we thought we knew the beach so thought we could swim wherever because it was out of the crowds and down by the rocks.”
Her parents were on the beach but didn’t see the girls get into trouble. “We were swimming right next to the rocks and that’s where the feeder current started to pull us out.”
Fortunately guards at the tower had been watching the water, saw them being pulled out and went to the rescue.
The Hamilton university student has stayed with surf life saving and has been involved in five rescues where she has pulled struggling swimmers from the sea. This summer she returns to the beach as patrol captain.
Surf Life Saving NZ doesn’t receive any government funding, but is part of a wider group from the water safety sector in talks with ministers about the need for financial support.
Marshall believes such funding would make a huge difference in reducing our drowning toll.