Swim between the flag You'll hear again and again from RNLI Beach Lifeguards: 'Always swim where there is a lifeguard on patrol and stay inside the area marked by the red and yellow flags.' On a sunny day at Perranporth, Cornwall, a family ignored this advice to their perilOn patrol along the 3-mile stretch of beach at Perranporth, during Easter weekend on 27 March 2005, Beach Lifeguard Margh Brewer pulled over in the patrol vehicle to talk to a family with body boards. They were some distance from the flagged swimming area, so Margh strongly advised them to walk up to the lifeguarded zone. As he drove off, they appeared to be taking his advice.

Before reaching the flagged area, the family spotted a patch of sea that looked calm and soon the four of them entered the water. They were unaware that they had just entered one of the most dangerous parts of the shore: what lifeguards call a 'hole'.

Later, patrolling between the flags, Drustan Ward spotted a teenage girl running towards him: 'She had a look of horror on her face. This could only mean one thing.' Her family had been swept out to sea. She jumped in the patrol vehicle with Drustan and they drove to the scene of the incident.

Meanwhile Lifeguard Dickon Berriman helped launch the rescue watercraft (RWC) for Lifeguard Supervisor Andy Thomas.

'To the untrained eye it Looks like the safest place to swim. But it's not safe at all. You can get out of your depth very quickly whether it's flat or big surf. It acts like a river, pushing you out to sea.' Drustan Ward, Beach Lifeguard Supervisor Drustan remembers being amazed at how quickly the RWC arrived on the scene: 'It's an amazing piece of kit - incredibly fast.' Only the father and another daughter were still in trouble as the mother had reached safety.

On the RWC, Andy had trouble locating the pair in the choppy seas. From the roof of his vehicle, Drustan used signal flags to direct his fellow lifeguard straight to the pair, now more than 150m from the shore. Even as an experienced lifeguard, Andy was surprised how far and how quickly the current had taken out the pair.

When he reached them they were Very upset, panicked and tired'. Andy picked up the little girl first and took her to the shore. He then went back to the father. The man had let go of his body board, which would have helped him stay afloat, but Andy reached him in time and took him to shore. Andy later commented: 'If we hadn't been there, I believe they would both have certainly drowned.' With the family reunited safely on shore, Drustan assessed their condition. After their ordeal, the family were understandably in shock and shed some tears. They thanked the lifeguards profusely and admitted that they rued their decision to ignore the advice to 'swim between the flags'..