Surfers train how to rescue people. Photo: Surfing New Zealand
The surf at Te Henga, or Bethells Beach, on Auckland's notoriously deadly West Coast wasn't so big. It was about two metres high, a good height for an experienced surfer like Dan Westerkamp, 29, who was out that day about 12 months ago.
A beginner surfer was also in the water. He had been sucked out by a rip, the strong currents sweeping him near the rocky headland and beyond the eyes of lifeguards on the beach.
"He couldn't get back in and he started yelling and screaming. He was knackered," said Westerkamp. "He was trying to get off his board and swim. People do all sorts of crazy things when they panic."
Westerkamp paddled over, calmed the new surfer down and helped to get him to shore.
Bethells Beach Te Henga on Auckland's West Coast. Photo:
It's not an uncommon scenario. Surfers are in the water from dawn until dusk, 365 days a year, and they are equipped with their own flotation device (a surfboard).
This makes them ideal lifesavers along New Zealand's 15,000 kilometres of coastline. Volunteer and paid lifeguards regularly patrol at a little more than 10 percent of those beaches. As a result, surfers end up rescuing countless swimmers, fishers and fellow surfers.
"We are at a number of beaches that are unpatrolled and we surf outside the flags," Ben Kennings from Surfing New Zealand says.
"If someone gets into trouble we are often the first to respond."
Surfing New Zealand is asking surfers to formalise their position as first responders through its course Surf Rescue 24/7. The two-hour course teaches basic CPR and first aid, and how to bring in conscious or unconscious people on a surfboard. It can be completed by surfers as young as 10.
"This course has been brilliant for our community reach and also in collaborating with the likes of Surf Lifesaving NZ. That certainly doesn't take away from what they do. It is an add-on."
Surfers learn how to bring in conscious and unconscious patients. Photo: Surfing New Zealand
There are more than 800 beaches in New Zealand. Only 92 beaches are patrolled by volunteer lifeguards and often that is on the weekend.
Patrols end before the sun sets, leaving plenty of time in the summer for swimmers to get into trouble. (Swimmers can check the website Safeswim for up-to-date patrol dates and hours).
The course was developed in Australia by Surfing NSW and Surf Lifesaving NSW. So far about 600 surfers have completed the course in New Zealand.
Westerkamp also works for Surfing New Zealand and teaches Surf Rescue 24/7 surf communities around the country, including Gisborne, Taranaki, Christchurch and Dunedin. This is done mostly through the 38 boardrider clubs in New Zealand.
Surfers learn to put their own safety first by approaching a rescue with a surfboard between themselves and a floundering swimmer (this reduces the risk of a panicked swimmer pulling a rescuer underwater).
"If you don't feel comfortable going out yourself, you have to get someone else to help."
At every course Westerkamp teaches, there are always a number of surfers who have already been involved in rescues. Some of those surfers are children.
In a group of 418 surfers - men, women, young, old - who were surveyed by a university student, 1274 rescues were reported by the group. In close to half of those rescues, surfers believed that their intervention had been lifesaving.
More than 70 percent of those rescued were males, mirroring a trend that men and boys are more likely to drown than women and girls.
ACC injury prevention leader James Whitaker says ACC is supporting a wider rollout of the Surf Rescue 24/7 programme so more surfers can access it at no cost.
"Given that surfers are most frequently the first responders at near drowning incidents in non-lifeguarded (and often remote) locations this is considered to be an effective way to prevent drownings and reduce the severity of water-related injuries."
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