New era for Mangawhai surf rescue

8 Aug, 2022
BY JULIA WADE

Swimmers, boaties and various sea lovers finding themselves in trouble in local waters have a higher chance of survival now surf lifeguards are prepped and ready to utilise a brand new, community funded, high-speed rescue machine.

Mangawhai Heads Volunteer Lifeguard Service (MHVLS) have ‘ushered in a new era’ of surf rescue, president Jon Drucker says, with the first crew of operators having their preliminary training session of the club’s recently-purchased Rescue Water Craft (RWC).

"We are excited to have this new tool in our rescue quiver,” Drucker says.

“It is recognised as the state-of-the-art surf lifesaving craft around the world and is just now coming into common operation in New Zealand. It's a big step forward for our lifesaving service.”

Over the weekend of July 27-28, five local guards teamed up with Muriwai volunteer lifeguards, spending the Saturday together in the Mangawhai estuary learning the basics of RWC operation and rescue techniques.

On the Sunday, they headed to Auckland’s west coast to test their new knowledge and skills out in the challenging four to six feet stormy surf of Muriwai beach. After the training, all the crew qualified as probationary operators, Drucker says.

“With the addition of the RWC to our arsenal, we will be able to effect safer and quicker responses to situations such as boating incidents on the Mangawhai bar and to incidents further along the coast such as Te Arai and Forestry beaches,” he says.

“Our Mangawhai team, the first lot of two to be trained and fully qualified before summer, will allow our local lifeguards to deploy the RWC on the beach this season, making our coastline just that much safer.”

n The RWC was largely funded through a variety of local community sponsors, the primary ones being Mangawhai Heads Four Square, Mangawhai Club, Mangawhai Opportunity Factory Op Shop and Tara Iti. MHVLS would like to extend a huge ‘thank you’ to all supporters.

Mangawhai Heads and Muriwai volunteer lifeguards met up for a combined training session with the brand-new Rescue Water Craft in late July. The high-performance machine can cut precious minutes off rescue response times, which makes all the difference to people in trouble in the water. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Taking on Muriwai’s wild waves; a trainee saddles up to test her new RWC skills. PHOTO/SUPPLIED