Fisherman rescued by orewa surf life saving club lifeguards

One minute Chris Atkinson and two friends were heading for shore after a day’s fishing off the Hibiscus Coast; the next, the sea turned violent. Looking back on the February 2019 incident, Atkinson still gets emotional. The estuary in question was the Ōrewa River estuary, off Auckland’s Hibiscus Coast.

The group had launched from Stanmore Bay, confident after checking the forecast. But a change in tide and a hidden sandbar turned the return trip into a rescue mission.

“The first wave came over, kind of hit the boat, filled the boat. The second wave came over, and just before the third wave, I grabbed the on-board VHF radio and called an SOS.” But the men barely had time to give their location before the radio went dead, “I said we were in the boat, how many people we had on board and our location, and by that stage, we were about 500m offshore. So not far, but far enough that you couldn't swim out in that area as there were lots of rips. The next wave came over and we told them that we had to ditch the boat.” That wave rolled over the bow, capsizing the vessel and throwing all three men into the cold, churning ocean. Two were wearing lifejackets. One was not. “It happened so quick that we had no chance to grab anything outside of the VHF.”

“It wasn’t a decision at that point. We got in the water, the boat was going under, we flipped it because we knew that they stayed afloat. It was just second nature.”

For nearly two hours the men drifted in rough surf, waves breaking over their heads as the light began to fade. One friend slipped into hypothermia. “He went from talking to just going quiet,” Atkinson said. “When you're in the water and you're in that situation, the first thing you need to do is get them out and get them warm. But we couldn't do that. “So I was grabbing whatever I could and trying to put it on him to keep him warm. We paddled and we got him really close, and we just tried to keep as much warmth between us as possible,” he said.

As the hours dragged on, panic was never far away. “One guy said, ‘Let’s just swim back,’ and it was a decision not to. That’s a natural response - you’re in danger, you see land, and you think, let’s swim for it. But often that means you’re relying on your own ability to swim against the tide, and that’s actually a really hard task to do.”

Atkinson tracked the coastline and realised how quickly they were drifting. “I don’t even know if it was an hour or two, but they picked us up 5.5km from where we went in the water,” he said. “We were just trying to keep morale up. One of the guys said, ‘We’re gonna die,’ and we turned around and said, ‘This isn’t it.’”

The distress call was picked up by the Auckland Marine Rescue Centre in Half Moon Bay, triggering a co-ordinated response involving police, the Coastguard and Surf Life Saving NZ.

The operation was led by Ōrewa Surf Life Saving Club’s Faron Turner, who directed crews through heavy weather about 5km offshore to reach the men.

Looking back, Atkinson said he’s grateful for every skill he learned around the water and for the rescue team on hand particularly the Orewa Surf Life Saving Club team. He shares his story to remind others how quickly things can turn.

“The Lifeguards are the unsung heroes,” he said. “They give up their weekends to keep people safe. Without them, I wouldn’t be here... [and] if my friend had been in the water 10 more minutes, he probably would have died.”

Atkinson, 41, now serves on the club’s board, helping lead plans for a new community hub to expand safety training and public education.

17 October 2025, Read the full story here at Stuff