News
Between the Flags: Woman spends 20mins at sea trying to save schoolboy
As Clare Sandbrook's lungs filled with sea water she knew she had an impossible decision to make. The youth group leader had a child on her back, his arms wrapped tightly around her neck and the weight of keeping him above the water preventing her from surfacing.
Read more...'Someone had got swept out and I felt sick' - Lifeguards open up about patrolling Auckland's notorious west coast beaches
Picture a morning hang-out session of surf-stoked local grommets and you'll have something of the vibe of the unusually overcast scene. Relaxing on the dunes above Piha's south beach, trivialities of the previous night's antics played out in loose conversation, as they all gaze forward at the waves and not each other.
Read more...Surf Lifesaving NZ history: The guardians of the beaches
In a bach by the iron sands, five rugby players were sitting around a keg and a bowl of sausages when they conceived the Piha Surf Lifesaving club. People were drowning unnecessarily in the turbulent west coast waters - the men wanted to do something and in 1934, they built a clubhouse and imported a surf boat from Sydney.
Read more...A day at Whangamata Surf Life Saving Club
NZME spent the end of the year at Whangamata Surf Life Saving Club and produced these awesome videos.
Read more...Surflife Saving: Marcia Charlton on husband's near-death in water: 'It wasn't his time to go'
"Without those lifeguards, he wouldn't be here and this would be a completely different story." This is how Marcia Charlton frames the harsh reality she lives in after her husband of 28 years had a stroke mid-surf.
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