Recently Lifeguards were called into action to assist a member of the public who had a suspected spinal injury after falling from a horse on the beach. Lifeguards were able to assess the patient and then put the patient on the spinal board, as part of the response, the Westpac Helicopter was called and the patient was taken safely to hospital.

We’ve had an inflatable boat involving young children floating out to sea and needing to be rescued by the IRB and returned to shore safely and they returned with a parent to swim between the flags. One Patrol team also had a member of the public come to them with a stray horse on the beach. The missing owner was found and the horse was reunited. All successful outcomes for the members of the public and awesome work from our Lifeguards.

We also had some special guests from the Santa Barbara Lifeguard Association join our patrol teams last weekend. Richard Hanna started his Lifeguarding journey back in 1991 at Paekakariki SL.

Through his work and connections with the Santa Barbara lifeguards, his mate Rick Hubbard (who is also a Lifeguard in Santa Barbara) wanted to become a New Zealand Qualified Lifeguard. He said to me that “NZ lifeguards are the best in the world and he wanted to be one” through some emails, online and in person training with Ally Jones & Rhys Ward, Rick passed his NZ Surf Lifeguard award on 25th January and like Conor, Asher and Lily all four new Lifeguards went on Patrol that very weekend.