The flags are back! If you know, you know… summer just got official.

Our local surf lifesavers pull on the reds and yellows each year for the swimming season October to April.

This means our patrolled beaches just got a whole lot safer to wade into.

Find your nearest patrolled beach here.

Nominated beaches are patrolled during the swimming season (last weekend of September to last weekend of April). Professional life guards patrol during school holidays and by volunteers from local Surf Life Saving Clubs on weekends and public holidays.

The volunteers are your neighbours, giving up their weekends for strangers. And they do it with the kind of grin that says they wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.

This year they’ve also got drones scanning the swell. Old school flags, new school tech, same crew underneath it all.

Here’s the only rule that matters. Find the flags, swim between them and if a lifesaver waves you in, that’s not a suggestion.

Swim at your own risk outside the patrol area, the ocean doesn’t read the roster.

Thank a lifesaver if you see one. Better yet, buy them a coffee.