{"id":382839,"date":"2026-04-16T17:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382839\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:42:14","slug":"off-duty-officers-praised-for-water-rescue-after-swimmers-caught-in-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382839\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-duty officers praised for water rescue after swimmers caught in rip"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two women were rescued by the officers and brought back to shore.<\/p>\n

Garton said the situation could have been drastically worse<\/a> and called the officers \u201clocal heroes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir actions prevented a tragedy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve chosen to avoid the limelight but we would like to commend their work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police remind the public that for any water-related emergency, always call 111 immediately.<\/p>\n

\"CoopersCoopers Beach in Northland’s Doubtless Bay is often sunny and calm but its rips can be deceiving. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Coopers Beach is a popular swimming spot in Doubtless Bay. Nearby Cable Bay is now infamous as being a trouble spot for rips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Drowning Prevention Aotearoa and Surf Life Saving NZ said bystanders can put themselves at risk if they attempt to rescue a person without a flotation device, with 103 rescuers fatally drowning between 1980 and 2024.<\/p>\n

The two organisations have prepared information on what to do<\/a> if a person is in trouble in the water, advising rescuers to always take a flotation device.<\/p>\n

A Northland-founded organisation, Operation Flotation<\/a>, has helped install public rescue equipment at more than 70 beaches nationwide.<\/p>\n

The charity was founded by Cable Bay resident Pat Millar<\/a>, after the death of her wh\u0101nau member Wairongoa \u2018Magoo\u2019 Renata in 2018<\/a>, who drowned in Cable Bay while saving his daughter.<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two women were rescued by the officers and brought back to shore. Garton said the situation could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13735,74,7972,1558,9525,67473,2082,305,78,111,43,139,24926,69,73758,23421,675,13033,16156,8527,60445,87540,165,376],"class_list":{"0":"post-382839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-actions","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-beach","11":"tag-been","12":"tag-caught","13":"tag-coopers","14":"tag-for","15":"tag-have","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-northlands","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-offduty","23":"tag-officers","24":"tag-police","25":"tag-praised","26":"tag-quick","27":"tag-rescue","28":"tag-rip","29":"tag-swimmers","30":"tag-their","31":"tag-water"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382839","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=382839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}