A Koonawarra man's first swim in the surf almost killed him yesterday afternoon at Wollongong's City Beach in yet another near drowning of an inexperienced swimmer.
Peter King, 19, was swimming with his girlfriend Natalie Penza, 16, and another girl about 1.30pm when they got into trouble in a rip after Mr King was dumped by a wave about 200m outside the flags.
The three were caught in the rip and had to be rescued by lifeguards, who battled crashing waves to get to the stricken swimmers.
After being pulled from the water Mr King was assisted by paramedics in an ambulance in the car park behind the beach.
Illawarra Ambulance district inspector Terry Morrow said he was breathing when he was pulled from the water and after coughing up "a bit of sea water" he was released.
Natalie said they had not been swimming between the flags and found themselves in a rip.
She said Mr King, who grew up in Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa, had recently moved to the Illawarra and was not a good swimmer, having not been taught how to swim in his homeland.
"That was the first time ... he won't swim again," she said.
"He's joining the Army but he doesn't know how to swim."
After leaving the ambulance, a shaken but relieved Mr King said he was "not really" likely to go back to the beach.
Natalie said they were swimming in the "totally wrong place" - an area well south of the flags - and were lucky to be saved by the council lifeguards.
"Lucky they saw him in time," Natalie said.
"Peter would have drowned for sure."
Natalie's mum Sandra watched the drama from the shore.
The area where they were swimming had a "danger" sign in the sand, and a rip which would have been visible to those familiar with the surf.
But to someone new to the beach, it could have looked like a spot without many breaking waves.
Zain Khalil, 18, who had come down from Campbelltown, saw the rescue.
"The lifeguards were getting sucked in [off their boards]," he said.
"It's lucky nobody died."
Mr King was saved by lifeguards Daniel Bloom, Makayla Morris and Ben Rasmussen.
Six people were pulled from the rip, Wollongong City Council beach services co-ordinator Jason Foye said.
"The City Beach precinct is patrolled by council's lifeguards but unfortunately the individuals chose to ignore the warning signs present and are fortunate that the timely actions of the lifeguards avoided a potential tragedy," he said.
Thousands of people flocked to the beach yesterday as temperatures reached 27 degrees at Albion Park, 23.6 degrees at Bellambi and 24.1 at Kiama.
Northern suburbs beaches continued to have the most people needing to be rescued, with 10 rescues at Austinmer, six at Woonona, four at Thirroul, two rescues at Stanwell Park, one at Towradgi Beach and one at Fairy Meadow.
People continued to ignore the "no swimming signs" and get in the water at the notoriously dangerous Puckeys Beach.
"Today at Puckeys there were about 20 people wading and another dozen or so swimming," Mr Foye said.
"The aerial patrol crew had to notify council lifeguards who sent someone over to attend to those people. The problem is it keeps happening."
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