Surf Life Saving Northern Region
Surf Life Saving Northern Region is the organisation responsible for controlling the surf lifesaving activities around the Auckland region of New Zealand. It is responsible for surf beaches from Far North Rescue to Raglan Surf Life Saving Club. It is a district organization of Surf Life Saving New Zealand. Founded in 1933, it currently has 17 affiliated clubs with more than 3000 volunteers. It currently employs 10 full-time staff and around 70 seasonal professional lifeguards.
Piha Surf Life Saving Club was founded in 1934, and as such is the oldest club on Auckland's west coast
Day to day responsibilities
During the New Zealand Life Saving Season Labour Day to April, Surf Life Saving Northern, through its support service, SurfCom, keeps in contact with the 17 surf clubs under its responsibility through radios or by telephone. The primary responsibility of SurfCom is to relay information between the surf life saving clubs and other rescue services. Also, every patrol fills in a form detailing local conditions and the type of patrol set up. This is relayed to Surf Life Saving Northern in order to allocate funding to individual clubs. At the end of the patrol a follow-up report is sent off detailing the number of guards patrolling, the number of rescue vehicles used, and the number of rescues, first aids, searches and preventative actions. Other support services include lifeguards stationed on the Westpac Rescue Helicopter (New Zealand), and on jet skis.