{"id":223036,"date":"2026-01-08T10:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T10:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/223036\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T10:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T10:22:15","slug":"acc-bay-of-plenty-racked-up-7700-sport-injury-claims-last-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/223036\/","title":{"rendered":"ACC: Bay of Plenty racked up 7700 sport injury claims last summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most summer injuries happened during swimming, surfing, mountain biking, road and trail cycling, gym and fitness activities, DIY and household slips or falls, as well as farming and gardening.<\/p>\n

\u201cSummer is one of the best times of the year in Aotearoa, but our claims data show it is also a time when injuries peak.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, ACC accepted 74,160 gardening-related injuries, which came at a cost of $117 million to help people recover. <\/p>\n

There were also 22,773 DIY-related injuries, with $41m in recovery costs. <\/p>\n

Whitaker said \u201cmost\u201d of these injuries were predictable and therefore preventable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is always better to prevent getting injured in the first place, so we can keep doing what we love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ACCACC injury prevention leader James Whitaker. Photo \/ ACC<\/p>\n

Whitaker told the Bay of Plenty Times that ACC wanted people to enjoy summer, knowing it was supporting them to stay injury-free.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wants to begin their summer holiday with a trip to A&E while their mates are out having fun and enjoying summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

ACC\u2019s Have a Hmmm campaign encouraged people to think when doing activities such as swimming, surfing, mountain biking, road cycling, trail cycling and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be providing tips people can follow to avoid injury while they\u2019re doing the things they love, so they can keep doing those things all summer long,\u201d Whitaker said. <\/p>\n

Sports or activities with the most active claims in the Bay of Plenty were fitness training\/gym with 916, cycling with 776 claims, rugby union 446 and football 373.<\/p>\n

There were 309 new surfing claims lodged last summer and 331 active claims for swimming. <\/p>\n

Surf Life Saving New Zealand eastern region lifesaving manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell said the Bay of Plenty had \u201csome risky areas\u201d along the coastline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In-shore holes \u2013 \u201ca deep trough close to shore that turns into a sand bank where the waves are breaking\u201d \u2013 could leave people in over their heads \u201cvery\u201d suddenly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith deep rip currents in the BOP this year, we think we could see a lot more incidents relating to rips this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other incidents seen by lifeguards included \u201ca lot\u201d of cuts and bruises, as well as surfboard injuries such as fin cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially where someone\u2019s come off their board and hit someone else or run over the top of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibbons-Campbell said the most serious injury lifeguards dealt with were spinal injuries.<\/p>\n

\"SurfSurf Life Saving New Zealand eastern region lifesaving manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell. Photo \/ Alex Cairns<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere a swimmer has caught a wave and gone headfirst into a sand bank, or a surfer has come off their board into shallow water.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there would generally be a couple of spinal incidents per season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough our colleagues up in Whangamat\u0101 once dealt with four spinal incidents in a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

His advice was to \u201calways check the conditions, know your limits, don\u2019t go alone, and if in doubt, stay out\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sport Bay of Plenty business services general manager Danene Jones said summer was the \u201cperfect time\u201d to get out and enjoy the outdoors.<\/p>\n

Jones said surfing was an especially popular, and growing, sport nationwide. <\/p>\n

\u201cSurfing remains a favourite along our coastline, thanks to iconic surf breaks and a strong network of local surf schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said with \u201cfantastic\u201d summer weather across the Bay of Plenty, it was the perfect time to try something new or get back into summer sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanning ahead and knowing your limits are some good first steps to making sure that the new activity is fun and enjoyable for the whole family and something you want to do again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most summer injuries happened during swimming, surfing, mountain biking, road and trail cycling, gym and fitness activities, DIY…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[133690,59784,1561,2562,15258,685,111,43,139,69,1118,1562,133689,2022,14625,810],"class_list":["post-223036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-133690","tag-acc","tag-bay","tag-claims","tag-injury","tag-last","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-plenty","tag-racked","tag-sport","tag-summer","tag-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223036","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=223036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}