Patrolling “Beyond the Flags” - But, Just By How Much?
A decade ago, Surf Lifesaving New Zealand (SLSNZ) made a subtle, yet ambitious change to its vision, purpose, and mission. Where previously SLSNZ were concerned “their” beaches, from about 2012 onwards SLSNZ have increasingly been charged with ensuring the safety of all beachgoers, even those whom are potentially very far beyond the flags.
Whilst I’m a lifeguard, I do not profess to know the inner workings and operational strategy of SLSNZ. I, however, will attempt to demonstrate how the monumentality of our coastline and that SLSNZ clubs are not optimally located to help SLSNZ achieve its vision.
The Vision
SLSNZ’s Vision remains “No one drowns at our beaches” according to the Strategy Road Map for 2022-23; and thanks to increased government funding of this essential service, the old adage that with great power comes great responsibility applies. It is subtle and easy point to miss - but the SLSNZ leadership is also tasked with enhancing SLSNZ’s primacy in ensuring beach and coastal safety.
Ordinary beachgoers won’t see any day-to-day changes to SLSNZ’s operations, especially during the patrolled season - there will still be flags flying across 80 locations across the motu. The quality of patrols will not diminish. The more astute, however, may notice lifeguards are becoming more proficient and invested in Search and Rescue (SAR), increased powered watercraft (IRBs and Jetskis) usage, and more preventative actions undertaken beyond the flags.
It is difficult to understate the scale of New Zealand’s coastlines. At around 15,000 KMs of coastline, New Zealand ranks ninth amongst all countries for length of coastline - according to the CIA World Factbook. Furthermore, according to estimates by the Ministry for the Environment, some 65% of Kiwis live within 5KMs of the coast. Finally - to put our coast into context - New Zealand has more coastline than China, who ranks tenth with around 14,000 KMs of coastline.
Are SLSNZ Clubs Optimally Located?
Unfortunately, the 74 clubs that make up SLSNZ are not optimally located to evenly patrol the coastline. It is very important to clarify that SLSNZ are not expecting clubs to shoulder these new responsibilities. However, the location of each club does have an impact on the ease to which SLSNZ can achieve its vision.
When breaking up the coastline into 2KM segments and assigning each segment to its nearest SLSNZ Club, we see some clubs have less than a 2KM stretch of coast before it nears another club, while Oreti Beach SLS finds itself being the sole club for over 2,400 KMs of coast, covering most of Fiordland and all of Rakiura/Stewart Island.
Image 1: Mapping outputs of coastline segments and their nearest SLSNZ Club
These maps are for illustrative purposes only - they are intended to provide the reader an idea of the vast coastline for which SLSNZ is assuming increased responsibility. As such, I acknowledge that because of the uniformity of the approach applied, some quirks appear. For example, some coastal segments in the Kaipara Harbour are closer to Orewa than Muriwai, but I suspect if a SAR needed SLSNZ assistance, Muriwai would probably be the first to respond given its on the West Coast. Again, my assumption could be incorrect as I’m not intimately familiar with SLSNZ operations for each and every part of New Zealand. Lastly, I should point out that because each segment is assigned to its single closest clubs, these maps pretend the idea of multiple clubs coordinating in a certain segment as being moot.
Some summary statistics: The median maximal patrol area is 82KMs, whilst the average maximal is ~202KMs. For the statistics nerds out there, this suggests a relatively negative skew, and the bar chart illustrates the results as such:
Image 2: Bar chart of SLSNZ Clubs by extent of nearest coastline.
Many SLSNZ clubs are clustered quite closely around cities, and the paucity of clubs in the South Island naturally lead to a negative skew.
One notable outlier from the pattern above - Mairangi Bay. The eastern-end of Auckland is notable for not having a single SLSNZ Club, even in relatively popular beaches such as Mission Bay and Maraetai, which one could argue that a club could be warranted based on patronage alone. Therefore, Mairangi Bay is interestingly the closest surf club for coastlines as far as the Hunua Ranges.
The Curious Case of New Brighton Beach
Image 3: Map of Christchurch surf lifesaving clubs
The eagle-eyed may have noticed that while there are 74 clubs, I have only maps for 73 clubs.
Under this segmentation model of the coast, no 2KM segment was nearest to North Beach Surf Lifesaving Club. A less than generous interpretation would be that this club is superfluous due to minuscule patrol area given that it is sandwiched so tightly between New Brighton and Waimairi. In fact, in whatever manner the coastline is segmented, North Beach always returns a nearest coastline totalling less than 2KMs. A more generous interpretation could conclude that the existence of North Beach Surf Lifesaving Club, alongside its three close neighbours makes New Brighton probably the safest beach in the country.
It would obviously be wrong to conclude that North Beach is superfluous. In keeping with SLSNZ’s vision that “no one drowns at our beaches”, every patrol on every beach helps us get closer to zero drownings.
Ngāti Porou - A New Model?
Ngāti Porou are the traditional custodians of the East Cape. Their rohe includes some of the most beautiful coastline anywhere in New Zealand, including one of my favourite places - Tolaga Bay. Beginning in the late 1980s, Ngāti Porou began laying the foundations of a surf lifesaving club as a matter of respect to their water-faring ancestors and as way to reconnect their rural communities with water, safely. As of this writing, Ngāti Porou Surf Lifesaving Club is one of the most recent club to become officially affiliated with SLSNZ.
Ngāti Porou SLS is unique for having an entirely roving patrol. Where a typical patrol might move their flags 100m north or south on a given day, Ngāti Porou will shift their entire patrol across to a different beach that could be anywhere stretching from Tokomaru Bay all the way to Te Kaha.
Image 4: Illustrating the extent of coastline covered by Ngāti Porou SLS
They have a two hubs with all of the gear, one based in Hicks Bay, and the other in Gisborne. On any given patrol day, they will post on their intended patrol location on the Facebook Page and ask that beachgoers congregate where the patrol is set up.
I find this operating model fascinating for two key reasons:
It affords a new level of flexibility, Ngāti Porou can respond to demand quickly and patrol on the beach with maximum impact. One day the surf and weather might be good at Hicks Bay, and the next day, its Tokomaru Bay with the favourable swells that draws beachgoers. No problem for Ngāti Porou, they will be there.
Ngāti Porou really are the custodians of their coastline. Given how rural the East Cape is, there aren’t many other resources, be it Coastguard or St Johns ambulances that could assist with emergencies in and around their coast. They really are walking the talk of elevating SLSNZ into being the primary ensurer of safety on our coastlines.
Could this operating model be adapted and extended elsewhere in the country? In the worst case scenario where volunteering continues to decline and clubs eventually fold, then this operating model becomes an inevitability, in my opinion. In the ideal scenario, Ngāti Porou would have enough resources to permanently patrol all prominent locations across their rohe.
On balance, this model is worthy of further investigation.
A Concluding Thought Experiment
The situation at North Beach does raise an interesting thought experiment: If SLSNZ could magically relocate all of North Beach’s resources to relieve pressure elsewhere - where would the “New North Beach Surf Lifesaving Club” be located? What variables would SLSNZ factor into their choice? I suspect local demographics, proximity to other clubs, beach patronage, and the surrounding existing transport infrastructure would be key factors.
…and this thought experiment is my next wee adventure.
Thanks for reading this far and stay tuned.
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