"A member of the public pressed the emergency button on our building, which triggered the siren and our alarms," a Coastguard Sumner spokesperson said.
"They'd spotted a young surfer in difficulties being carried out to sea off Scarborough. With a big southerly storm blowing, time was of the essence.
"Hamilton Jet Rescue was launched in 7 minutes and located the person in just 3 minutes. We returned them to our station for a medical check, fortunately all ok.
"Many thanks to the eagle-eyed person who spotted the surfer in trouble and called us out.
"We had a great response from our crew - 17 attended the callout, followed up with 21 attending our regular Tuesday training, many of whom were at the earlier callout.
"We launched two vessels at dusk for training, to give (the) crew a chance to practice in challenging conditions - the southerly storm was still blowing."
