Surf Lifesaving

We identified surf lifesaving as an excellent charity to partner with, as we recognise the contribution that lifeguards provide in keeping us and our loved ones safe in the water each year.

We support five surf lifesaving clubs around New Zealand, providing each of these with the funds to purchase essential equipment for their clubs. We currently support:

Red Beach Surf Lifesaving Club, Auckland
Hot Water Beach Lifeguard Services, Coromandel
Lyall Bay Surf Lifesaving Club, Wellington
Taylors Mistake Surf Lifesaving Club, Christchurch
St Clair Surf Lifesaving Club, Dunedin

These five clubs and their members are part of a family of 74 Surf Life Saving Clubs across New Zealand, and over 4,500 volunteer Surf Lifeguards who patrol at over 80 locations every summer. The members volunteer thousands of hours to patrol beaches saving lives and keeping people safe. Given their commitment to keeping communities safe every year, Argosy’s partnerships with its local clubs are incredibly important and we will continue to support them at every opportunity.

Red Beach SLSC, Auckland

Founded in 1953 and located on Auckland’s Hibiscus Coast, the Red Beach Surf Life Saving Club has grown remarkably over the years to become one of the premier surf clubs in New Zealand. The club’s volunteer lifeguards patrol at two beaches during summer… at Red Beach and also at Pakiri Beach, a one-hour drive north of its Red Beach base.

The club has over 1,300 members which include patrolling lifeguards, 450 Junior members aged 4-13 years, Masters, Associates, and squash club members (the club has two courts). It is run by volunteers and is very family oriented. The modern premises on the beachfront have undergone a major redevelopment programme. They offer an amazing view of the beach and the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and meet the social needs of club members.

The clubrooms are popular with locals and visitors as a venue for Friday night meals, Sunday brunches, and for private functions. Club funds are sourced via grants, the generosity of sponsors, membership fees, donations, and from specific fundraising ventures.

For a number of years, the club has enjoyed the sponsorship support of Argosy Property Management. The Argosy branding appears on the hulls of its fleet of surf boats which are rowed in competition during the summer.

Read more about the club on www.redbeachslsc.com

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.

Lyall Bay SLSC, Wellington

Lyall Bay Surf Lifesaving Club is one of the oldest lifesaving clubs in New Zealand and the first to patrol on a New Zealand beach. We have a proud history of providing Wellington City and the Lyall Bay community with a patrolled surf beach over multiple generations. Our patrols rely on our members volunteering time over the summer months for active duty with training undertaken year round. The club is a key part of the Lyall Bay community and is in the final stages of rebuilding the clubhouse with a modern purpose built facility suitable for the demands of a beach and natural hazard prone environment.

The club has over 250 active members with key lifeguarding services completed by 60 trained and refreshed lifeguards. To keep lifeguards fit the club actively participates in local, regional and national surf lifesaving competitions. Children aged 5 to 14 are provided with surf awareness and surf skills to prepare the basic skills to build on for future lifeguarding. Sunday morning junior surf trainings regularly have over 100 children on the beach actively participating.

The club funds the front line rescue equipment and services through support from Surf Live Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ), club sponsors, community grants and through public and member donations. Securing funding for the equipment and the maintenance and operating costs of the clubhouse is critical to the ongoing patrol services on Lyall Bay beach.

Taylors Mistake SLSC, Christchurch

Taylors Mistake is a bay on Banks Peninsula just over the hill from the Sumner and Christchurch. Its name dates back to a story that during a storm a Captain Taylor wrecked his boat there in the mid 1850’s when he mistook it for Lyttleton Harbour, the entrance to which is next to it.

The Club was formed in 1916 and was the 6th Surf Life Saving Club established in New Zealand. Every year since then the Club has maintained Voluntary Surf Life Saving Patrols every summer weekend, proudly serving the Community who chose to visit and bath at Taylors, our reason for being!

Good reason too because since 1950 (our records prior to that were lost in a fire that year) and for the 71 years to 2021, the Club has recorded 1,627 rescues or an average 23 per annum. Over more recent years the average has dropped to 13 as along with other Clubs Taylors has introduced an improved system of preventative interventions.

Our task is made easier with Argosy’s generous help!

"Following the 2011 EQ’s a rebuild in 2020 will help us serve the Community for many years to come." Jim Turpin, Patron.

Please visit www.taylorsmistake.com for more information.

St Clair SLSC, Dunedin

St Clair and Argosy have been in partnership now for two seasons and during that time Argosy has been able to make an impact that matters to the Otago Southland community.

Argosy’s support of St Clair SLSC has enabled the club to purchase two crucial rescue assets, our club rescue repose 4WD and our club Can-am. These assets have enabled our lifeguards to respond to people during their time in need not only during patrol hours but also in call out situations.

The 4WD vehicle has been of significant benefit to the Otago Call Out team. The SLSNZ Otago call out team is made up from lifeguards across the Otago clubs and respond to water related rescues across the Otago/Southland area. Our team includes St John personnel, Firefighters and experienced watermen/women who are all volunteer lifeguards who put their hand up outside of patrol hours. This season alone we have responded to over 35 callouts varying from surfers stuck on rocks, body recoveries, Near drownings, boats in distress and searches. As volunteers we are exposed to a multitude of situations and water users from kayakers, surfers, swimmers and people who need clinical help.

The Can-am enables us to access our ever-moving patrol area which with beach erosion is getting harder to access. Importantly the Can-am provides a safe mode of transport of our lifesaving equipment which is paramount for our members.

Our Club is run fully by volunteers and Partnerships like our one with Argosy take some off the stress off our volunteers and enable us to focus on what we are good at which is saving lives and looking after our community.