Photo: Sharon Brettkelly
When Allan Mundy goes out on his ski paddle he wears his life jacket, he takes his phone and a personal locator beacon.
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"It really strikes me when I see people on stand up paddle boards in the same environment with not even a leg rope on their board."
Mundy, a volunteer lifeguard for 45 years and Surf Life Saving's national surf and rescue manager, was out on his ski paddle 500 metres offshore at Mt Maunganui the other day when he spotted a stand up paddle boarder nearby wearing his board shorts and nothing else.
"What was he thinking and how do we change that thought? We've got to get in their heads and make them realise that actually, this is a real problem."
In Australia, says Mundy, the paddle boarder would be fined for not wearing a life jacket.
The Detail's Sharon Brettkelly spoke to Mundy at Omanu Surf Life Saving Club in Mt Maunganui about our dire drowning statistics and why Australia is ahead of New Zealand when it comes to tackling the problem.
Data just released from the 2020-21 Beach & Coastal Safety Report shows that New Zealand has a 44 percent higher 10-year average beach and coastal drowning rate per capita than Australia.
Water Safety New Zealand's 2021 Provisional Drowning Report says 74 drownings occurred last year - the same as in 2020 - and 20 of them were in December.
The Drowning Report showed most fatalities were men, more than half of drownings were aged 45 and over, and more Māori than any other ethnicity died.
And – shockingly - nearly three in ten New Zealanders can’t swim or float in the ocean for more than a few minutes.
The kiwi ‘can do’ attitude is "catching us out", says Mundy. A lot of men in particular fool themselves that they are strong swimmers.
"We're just not learning," he says.
In the 19th century drowning was called the New Zealand disease.
"And it still is," says Mundy.
He argues that it doesn't take much to "tool up" - a life jacket or leash -
but if people don't want to do it voluntarily, it’s time to make it mandatory, he says.
Mundy wants police, Surf Life Saving NZ and other water safety groups to get together to work on why people are drowning.
The organisation is also highlighting the need for significant and sustained investment in public education strategies and campaigns for beach and coastal safety.
"We know there's a difference between being able to swim, the skill of swimming, and the fitness of swimming, and that's where the New Zealand public are missing the mark.
"Just because you've been taught to swim doesn't mean 30 years later you can still swim 200 metres.
“Unless you swim 200 metres regularly and competently you cannot swim out the back of the waves."
"Skill is one thing, but that goes when you're panicking."
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