Pāpāmoa lifeguards were dismayed to discover on Monday morning that their Pāpāmoa East tower has been broken into and vandalised.

On arriving for lifesaving duty the lifeguards found the remains of a bonfire below the tower, where the door, which had been broken off, had been burnt along with the chairs and desk from the tower. Broken glass and sunscreen was everywhere throughout the tower, which also smelt of urine and faeces.

'It's outrageous,” says Surf Lifesaving Eastern Region Manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell. 'Some low life buggers have come and vandalised our control tower at Pāpāmoa East.”

Chaz says the lifeguards finished duty on New Year's Day, locked up and left the tower, which is a temporary structure about 300 metres to the east of Taylor's Reserve.

The lifeguards' bottles of sunscreen were splattered around the inside of the tower which reeked of urine and faeces. The window was smashed and the door taken off its hinges and used for a beach fire. Photo: Supplied.

'The guards came back on Monday to find the windows had been smashed in, the door had been ripped off its hinges, and they'd set fire to the furniture and door.”

The lifeguard's supply of sunscreen bottles had also been 'splattered all through the tower” says Chaz.

'It was reeking of urine. They must have used it as their toilet.”

Because of the tower's location on the dunes, it is far away from CCTV, with no security cameras nearby.

'They would have had to come through the park or in that vicinity,” says Chaz.

The door, chair and desk were used for a bonfire on the sand near the tower. Photo: Supplied.

He says the tower was also broken into last summer, with the door smashed into.

'We were able to fix it then. But this time due to the disgusting nature of it where they have not only wrecked the tower but the pissing and pooing inside – it's completely unable to be used.”

What's happening next?

'We have to arrange with McLeod Cranes and Bill Webb Contracting (tractors) to bring in a replacement tower on a hire truck. They will have to take that off, and tow the truck on to the beach with a tractor, then crane the replacement tower into place, then lift the damaged tower on, and tow the truck back out with the tractor.

'We won't have it done this week.”

Maintaining a lifesaving patrol at Pāpāmoa East

In the meantime, the lifeguard service is attempting to continue providing a lifesaving service to the local community and visiting beachgoers.

'We are running continuous roams with a boat on and the guys are talking to the public down there letting them know the situation. They will also park up for a bit. Until the tower is replaced they are doing extra roaming controls in the ATV [all-terrain vehicle] and IRB [inflatable rescue boat]."

The chair from the tower was used for a bonfire on the sand. Photo: Supplied.

Unfortunately, with the onshore wind this week, the weather is 'crappy” at the moment, says Chaz.

'And the lifeguards have no shelter to sit in out of the elements.”

The lifeguard service has concerns about operating safely from the Pāpāmoa East location. The tower is at a far more remote location than the Mount, Tay Street, Omanu and Pāpāmoa surf lifeguard locations.

'It's bare basics here and the tower gave them a spot out of the elements so they can observe the wider beach. And now that's gone.

'The tower is completely out of use and we do have poor weather conditions for today and likely the rest of the week. Talking to the guards the set-up we have been running from was the bare minimum to protect them from the elements, now we have zero shelters with no wet weather/ cold weather gear.”

The lock was broken and the door taken off its hinges. Photo: Supplied.

Chaz says the lifeguards are driving from their base at Pāpāmoa Surf Club every half hour and when they can they park up and observe swimmers, but stay back at base if it's raining.

'We can't put up popup tents because of the wind - they get blown away. The surf club have a 4 WD ute where we can park up above the dunes, but it's not ideal,” says Chaz.

'If the weather's fine we can have flags there and lifeguards, who we will swap out every 45 minutes. But if it's windy and raining we can't have lifeguards out there in the elements. There needs to be somewhere at Pāpāmoa East where they can sit out of the wind.”

Tay Street

On December 30 the Tay Street tower was also broken into.

'The lifeguards had left their binoculars in there, and they came back the next morning to find the window had been left open and binoculars stolen. That tower is quite secure with latches on the door and windows.”

He's concerned about the safety risk that the Tay Street tower poses as it's quite a high tower.

'To get past the locks and latches, they have to clamber around the outside. If they are intoxicated while doing that and fall they could hurt themselves. We don't want them getting hurt.”

Other incidents

Chaz says the Tay Street and Pāpāmoa East incidents appear isolated, but says that the lifeguard towers at Tologa Bay and Gisborne also had attempts by people trying to break in to them.

'Crime like this just seems to be rife at the moment. Luckily there's nothing in these towers. And towers at Tay Street and Pāpāmoa East shouldn't have anything in them ideally.”

The lifeguards' bottles of sunscreen were splattered around the inside of the tower which reeked of urine and faeces. Photo: Supplied.

Equipment used in surf lifesaving is expensive, with hours upon hours of volunteers' time spent fundraising.

Shout out

Chaz says that a local community group pitched in to help the lifeguards clean up on Monday morning.

'DMI Beach Groomers from Pāpāmoa were legends on the morning. They stopped to talk to the lifeguards and went into the tower and cleaned up inside. The guards were just so thankful.

The lifeguards' bottles of sunscreen were splattered around the inside of the tower which reeked of urine and faeces. The window was smashed and the door taken off its hinges. Photo: Supplied.

'The guards have cleaned up below the tower the best they can but obviously were not equipped to clean up all the glass in the sand and the fire. We talked to a private contractor to the council and he came down and did the best he could to resolve the mess.

Message to the culprits and community

Chaz wants to send a message to the culprits.

'It's not on, we can't have people vandalising. People need to be safe on the beaches,” says Chaz.

'And to the local community – please remain vigilant – if you see any suspicious activity please call Police. If anything is happening call 111 and the next morning if you're walking past and it's already happened please call 105. The Police don't want to be dealing with this sort of thing.”