\u201cBy this time the sun had already set and it\u2019s quite dangerous to be driving when there\u2019s low light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four lifeguards attended in two inflatable rescue boats, identified the rip and followed it out.<\/p>\n
The swimmers who were \u201cspread over a wide area\u201d were recovered individually and brought ashore within 20 minutes of the initial emergency call.<\/p>\n
A second wave of responding lifeguards received them on the beach and provided medical treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe chucked them straight in the surf ute and put the heaters on because they were hypothermic,\u201d Harvey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur first aid room is not the biggest so to have three patients in there, that involves temperature checks, blood glucose and listening to their chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a while for them to become stable and to bring those emotions down because it\u2019s a life-and-death situation, they\u2019re obviously quite distressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two were transported to Wait\u0101kere Hospital by ambulance and the other was able to go home with wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n
The team at Bethells Beach Surf Life Saving Patrol worked after hours to rescue three swimmers. Photo \/ Bethells Beach Surf Life Saving Patrol<\/p>\n
Harvey said the team of 13 lifeguards involved in the rescue effort \u201cperformed very well under pressure\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are just volunteers, so when the phone goes we\u2019re either having our dinner, or just finished work, or with our families.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we train regularly and we\u2019re used to these sorts of situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvey said there has been a concerning rise in after-hours callouts at Bethells; five in the past three weeks, compared to 12 all last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly urge, with the really hot weather at the moment, that people do the right thing and really assess the situation, make good decisions so you can come home to your wh\u0101nau.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvey said he \u201ccompletely\u201d advises against swimming at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr if you do, pick a beach that is not the wild west coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever swim alone, always have family with you, and as much as possible, swim when there is a patrolled area on location and operating.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBy this time the sun had already set and it\u2019s quite dangerous to be driving when there\u2019s low…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,1975,7972,9218,111692,2837,71,22220,42,5838,296,47671,19475,43,2551,73758,18560,60445,22215,111693,42903,110848,87540,1529,40,38,41,39,8238,2201,3608,4741],"class_list":["post-173301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-at","tag-beach","tag-before","tag-bethells","tag-during","tag-from","tag-going","tag-headlines","tag-help","tag-into","tag-lifeguards","tag-minutes","tag-news","tag-night","tag-offduty","tag-rescued","tag-rip","tag-separated","tag-sucked","tag-sunset","tag-swim","tag-swimmers","tag-three","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-under","tag-went","tag-were","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}