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A tragedy unfolds at Bondi Beach when lifeguards are unable to locate a man last seen struggling to stay afloat at the southern end of the beach where there is a dangerous rip. With no friends or family reporting a missing person, the lifeguards hope all is well.
Curator’s notes
During the making of Bondi Rescue there were usually six cameras roaming the beach to capture the action, and one fixed in the tower. Even so, like the lifeguards, they sometimes missed the actual incident but are usually quick to follow up. This second series of 10 programs was shot during the 2007 summer and followed the enormous success of the first series filmed during the summer of 2006. In this series there is the addition of a young western suburbs trainee who had not grown up with the surf at his back door and the first full-time female squad member, a lifeguard from the Central Coast of NSW.
These young men and women who work as professional lifeguards personify the stereotypical image of the bronzed Australians with their laconic sense of humour and their athletic prowess. They’re also patient and welcoming of non-Australians to the beach while some of them have a smattering of other languages such as French, Italian and Japanese. The series has been shown in the United Kingdom and around the world so it’s to be hoped that visitors to Australia may learn from this series and especially from this program, that the ocean is not always benign.
