Hot Water Beach Lifeguard Services, Coromandel
The Hot Water Beach Lifeguard Services priorities are to promote water safety, train lifeguards and save lives and prevent drowning. We currently cover three local beaches: Hot Water Beach, Hahei and Cathedral Cove. The DOC and TCDC stats show both HWB and Cathedral Cove had in excess of 700,000 people visit these two beaches in the year prior to Covid.
Hot Water Beach alone had seven tour buses daily arriving each with 50 passengers on board, alongside the many vehicles and shuttles bringing people to the beach. Our lifesaving equipment is in high use and more than ever in a harsh environment which means having to replace it more regularly.
We are currently celebrating the completion of our long awaited rescue base at the south end of Hot Water Beach which finally provides a place for guards to have shelter, a first aid room, a quicker response time for rescues and some storage for lifesaving equipment and machinery.
Combined stats for these three beaches which include volunteer and paid lifeguard time are as follows for the season ending July 2020: 5,690 lifeguard hours, 68 rescues, 62 people assisted to safety, 27 major first aids, 166 minor first aids, 34 searches and 6210 preventative actions involving 38,422 people.
As our season prior to Covid was three to four months longer than anywhere else in NZ and we expect that with our country leading the Covid battle that our tourist numbers will increase rapidly even more in the future we need to stay prepared. Training is all year round as over the winter we take the time to upskill our lifeguards and encourage the next generation of guards to get involved so they are ready for the summer ahead.
We couldn’t do everything we do without our wonderful sponsors. Currently Argosy has sponsored one of our IRB’s and the engine for it as well and we can’t thank them enough for the generosity they have shown our Club over many seasons and for their part in keeping our beaches safer.
Please visit https://www.sporty.co.nz/hotwaterbeachlifeguards for more information.