3 January 2022

Summary

With great weather and high headcounts, it was another a busy day for the team today.

Pakiri lifeguards were advised by SurfCom at 1234 of two swimmers being swept out to sea at Goat Island. Police (who had informed SurfCom) did not have any further information but advised that the current and wind would mean that there was a good chance Pakiri would come across them on their trip south to Goat Island. On arrival at Goat Island, Pakiri lifeguards could not immediately see anyone in the water showing any signs of distress. A search commenced involving the Pakiri IRB and Police Eagle helicopter while Fire, Ambulance and more Police responded to the shore. Omaha were tasked to launch an IRB to assist with the search and the Omaha Search and Rescue Squad was activated to maintain patrols and get an extra IRB set up should another asset be required on scene. At 1413, Pakiri IRB informed SurfCom that on scene Police had called off the search as there were a large number of assets who had performed a very thorough search of the area and found nothing to suggest that there were any people requiring assistance. All assets from all agencies were stood down at this point as Police were reasonably comfortable that the people who had been seen going under were likely to be divers who had already returned to shore.

At 1647, Long Bay advised SurfCom that they were commencing a search after a boy had informed the lifeguards that his little brother was missing. The six-year-old was last seen in the water and had not been seen for approximately one hour before the lifeguards were brought into the search. Thankfully the child was found in less than 20 minutes and was safely reunited with his family.

Raglan required an ambulance today for a 30-year-old male who had been stung by a bee. The man had previously had reactions to bee-stings so was concerned by the swelling he was experiencing in his face, mouth and lips and tingling all over his body. An ambulance arrived promptly and spent over an hour with the patient at the beach before departing, leaving the patient at the beach in a stable condition. Raglan also rescued two people today, one of whom was a 21-year-old male.

Immediately after patrol closed at 1907, Bethells contacted SurfCom to advise that they were commencing a search for two teenagers. The pair (a 16-year-old male and 15-year-old female) had been dropped off to the lake around 1pm by the female’s mother, the male’s mother had returned to the lake to pick them at 5pm as agreed but had no seen or heard from the children. Lifeguards gathered as much information as they could before deploying two guards to the lake with the informant to begin a preliminary search which thankfully resulted in the pair being found safe and well and not requiring any further assistance. Bethells also rescued one person earlier in the day.

Ruakaka performed one assist today on a patient who was in the water, 10m outside of the flags. Omaha assisted a 10-year-old girl who got into trouble just outside of the flagged area - a lifeguard responded on a rescue board to help her back to shore. Muriwai assisted three people back to shore in one incident.

A 20-year-old male at Orewa got hit on the head by a surfboard. He had a deep, wide cut above his right eyebrow but displayed no signs of concussion. Lifeguards cleaned and dressed the wound and recommend the male get seen by a doctor to assess the cut for stitches.

Statistics – Monday 3 January 2022

(Summary compiled by Georgia Parker/SurfCom)

© Scoop Media