Tipping point

A group of St Clair Surf Lifesaving members round White Island during last year's White Island...
A group of St Clair Surf Lifesaving members round White Island during last year's White Island race. Photo by Berbara Newton.
A heavy swell and a strong southwesterly wind combined to make conditions hazardous for competing...
A heavy swell and a strong southwesterly wind combined to make conditions hazardous for competing boats in the 1974 White Island race. Among the crews to strike trouble were Brighton B and South Brighton (Christchurch). The drama began when the...
However, when still about 400m from shore the surf boat also capsized, throwing both crews into...
However, when still about 400m from shore the surf boat also capsized, throwing both crews into the heavy surf.
A landing was finally made about 400m south of Lawyers Head.
A landing was finally made about 400m south of Lawyers Head.

Forty years ago this Labour Day weekend, dozens of lifeguards lined up for one of lifesaving's toughest races, the annual slog around White Island 2.5km off St Clair Beach. On Saturday, October 26, 1974, when the race began, conditions were at best marginal. They were about to get a lot worse, as Ian Stuart reports.

Dunedin lifeguards pride themselves on being able to handle most sea conditions and most weather but Labour Day weekend 1974 was to test them to the limits of their surf training, fitness and stamina.

The White Island race was first held in 1969 and has become an integral part of the 114-year-old St Clair Surf Lifesaving Club's history. It also marks the start of the club's summer lifesaving patrols at the popular and picturesque white-sands beach.

As the club prepared for this year's event, some of those who raced in 1974, and who will race again this year, said 1974 was a day of drama. In the 45-year history of the race surf conditions have never been as bad. No lives were lost but club officials conceded it was a close call.

Of the dozen or so craft that began, only two finished, a surf ski paddled by then Dunedin police officer and St Clair club member Brett Leask (26), and a St Clair club surf canoe paddled by Bart Smaill (35), Graeme Newton, Peter Laing and Bruce Campbell (all 22).

Within minutes of the race starting, officials knew they were in trouble. Only four craft made it through the heavy dumping surf: Leask's, the St Clair canoe, a Brighton canoe and a surf boat from the South Brighton club in Christchurch.

Struggling in the horrendous conditions to keep their canoes upright, crews fought off hypothermia from the cold water and numbing southerly. A St Kilda canoe crew was tipped out about 100m from the shore when the sea washed into their canoe and it began sinking.

Two rescue craft were also put out of action by the conditions so competitors had to rely on themselves to get ashore.

''We were extremely lucky not to have a fatality,'' Smaill, the captain of the St Clair canoe crew, said.

The 1974 race was due to begin at 9am on the Saturday but the southerly was consistent and beyond the 2m surf was a sloppy, messy sea, which would be worse when competitors moved past the shelter of the point by the hot saltwater pool.

Leask, now 66 and still an active lifeguard, has vivid memories of the race.

''The sea was reasonably rough, with waves at least 1.5m high. The water temperature was about 12degC. As I cleared the protection of the cliffs to the west of St Clair beach, I felt the full force of the southerly wind and it was now coming sideways on to me.

''About two-thirds of the way out to the island, I was very concerned. I couldn't see anyone else, white caps all over the place and a bad cross-swell.''

About a kilometre from the beach Leask topped a 2m swell, and was blown off his ski by a southerly gust. The wind chill from the biting southerly made his situation perilous.

Like other competitors, he did not wear a wetsuit but instead had a cotton T-shirt. Within seconds the risk of hypothermia had become very real.

''I had the option of swimming back to the beach with my paddle or leaving my paddle behind and swimming after my ski.

''I figured I needed my ski for flotation more than my paddle and I could hand-paddle the ski back to shore. Luckily, the wind dropped, the ski was stationary so I swam 20m to it, turned around and found the paddle nearby.''

Leask decided to continue to the island rather than head for home but said conditions were horrendous and he struggled around the island in the unforgiving sea and heat-sapping southerly.

Getting around the island took intense concentration, just to keep moving and stay on top of his 6m ski, he said.

Catching the swells on the return leg meant he made good time back to the beach, where a race official asked where he had been.

''I told him I had been around White Island and done the race. He was very surprised.''

The St Clair canoe had hit the beach moments earlier. The only other craft to reach the island were the Brighton canoe and the South Brighton boat. Brighton turned back rather than tackle the dangerous conditions behind the island and the South Brighton boat rounded the island but was wiped out by a huge wave as it came in to the beach.

Smaill said the race was the most dangerous the club had run.

''I would never condone it again, not in those conditions.''

As they struggled to stay in their craft behind the island, Smaill said crew member Laing asked the obvious question: ''Are we going to drown?''''He got one very short response: `Shut up and paddle','' Smaill said.

Laing later admitted the conditions scared him but he was confident he could swim the 2.5km back to the beach if they were washed out of their canoe. The waves were as big as he had encountered on a fishing boat off Fiordland.

Another St Clair crewman, Graeme Newton (now 62), who will paddle again this year, said they battled the Brighton crew of Maurice Bell, Wayne Vorrath, Howard Bell and Kel Williams, all the way to the island.

''Brighton arrived just ahead of us, and sat in the lee of the island for a while before deciding to return to shore,'' Newton said.

''Around the back of the island conditions were horrendous and we struggled to make any headway, with water washing into the canoe and very big and steep swells coming at us.

''We had complete faith in Bart and when he told us not to stop paddling, we paddled for all we were worth.''

Back on the beach the St Clair crew was met by a ''very concerned and glum'' race controller, Murray Wilson.

Hypothermia was a serious worry, Wilson said.

''I took a radio and got in my car and went down to John Wilson Drive to keep the crews in view. I saw the Brighton canoe a long way off course, along with other crews spread along the beach, all making slow progress towards shore.''

They were lucky and it was a valuable lesson, he said.

This year's race is expected to attract entries from most Otago clubs and possibly some Christchurch clubs. There will be surf canoes, skis and paddleboards but probably no surf boats, which have not been seen on St Clair Beach for many years. Swimmers also regularly compete.

 -Ian Stuart is a former Otago Daily Times journalist and a former member of the St Clair Surf Lifesaving Club.

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