Cold winds, cloudy skies make for safe beaches

It may be hard to find a silver lining in the rain clouds that have been scudding across Dunedin skies recently, but perhaps Dunedin's excellent beach safety record is one.

So far during a season that can only loosely be described as summer, nobody has got in any trouble on city beaches.

Unfortunately, that is mostly because it has been too cold to go in the water.

Despite the empty beaches, volunteer life guards have been bravely sticking to their duties.

At a chilly Brighton Beach, Blake Porteous said four people covered the shift required each day.

Before Christmas there had been days when up to 180 people attended the beach, but also other days that were ''pretty average''.

''This week it's been pretty empty,'' she said.

St Kilda Surf Life Saving Club president Peter Gibbons said rough surf conditions on the coast and ''atrocious weather'' had kept people away from the beach.

''There's been no rescues because conditions have been that poor.''

On Wednesday the wind got so strong flags would not stay up.

Lifesavers had been put to work cleaning, repairing boats and attending to other chores that needed doing.

david.loughrey@odt.co.nz