Surf Life Saving encourages basic safety precautions

News Release

29 March 2011

Surf Life Saving New Zealand encourages basic safety precautions

Surf Life Saving New Zealand is concerned that an organised activity involving young surf students at Piha Beach on Auckland's west coast yesterday (Monday 28th March) unnecessarily endangered young lives.

Piha Surf Lifeguards and Call Out Squad members along with assisting emergency services, responded to a report that approximately 15 people were caught a dangerous rip. On arrival it was ascertained that several young surf students were caught in a strong rip accompanied by a large swell and swift off-shore breeze. The surfers were believed to be part of an organised activity initiated by a local surf school.

"Surf Life Saving New Zealand is extremely concerned about the lack of precautions and safety measures demonstrated in this incident. The particular rip that the students were caught in is notoriously unpredictable and combined with difficult conditions had the potential to be extremely dangerous. It is Surf Life Saving New Zealand's view that the students should not have been allowed to enter the water in these conditions - and certainly not without an adequate risk management mitigation plan in place," said Grant Florence, Surf Life Saving New Zealand Chief Executive.

"The students were taken out at a time when light was fading, conditions were rough and no adequate safety measures were in place. It was an uncontrolled environment that unnecessarily put lives at risk and in our view was totally irresponsible behaviour." said Florence.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand is concerned that this incident follows a recent episode in Hawkes Bay where an organised beach activity took place without appropriate safety plans and ended up in a mass rescue.

"Any organisation arranging group aquatic activity must take basic safety precautions into account. Every organised beach event should have a documented safety plan which evaluates daily conditions and other hazards. The weather forecast, wave height, surf conditions, wind direction etc are all significant factors that need to be taken into account - a static safety plan that does not take these factors into consideration is not good enough." said Florence.

People can get into trouble very quickly and often don't realise how rapidly a situation can become hazardous - having appropriate safety measures in place is imperative.

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