Volunteer and paid lifesavers from Shellharbour to Eden pulled some people from rips and others from overturned boats. The Westpac Life Saver helicopter has winched at least four people to safety.

Beachgoers have been assisted with first aid for a variety of things including stingers, stingray barbs to the foot and dislocations.

Notably, there was 51 rescues at Merimbula with 35 at Bar Beach and 16 at Short Point from Boxing Day to January 16.

There were 32 rescues in Tathra, most of those recorded between December 20 and January 16.

At Bermagui on Tuesday, four children visiting the area were winched to safety by the Westpac helicopter after becoming stranded by a turning tide at the ocean pool.

Aged between 10 and 16, the children were playing on rocks before they realised the way back to their mother had disappeared. They were unable to be rescued by an inflatable rescue boat due to the rough conditions, so lifesavers called in the helicopter. The children were winched to safety.

Meanwhile, further north at Mollymook, 25 people have been rescued by volunteers over the Christmas period. It is estimated that for the same period, about 40,000 people visited the three beaches in the area - Mollymook South, Mollymook North and Narrawallee.

Surf Life Saving South Coast president Steve Jones said across the board, the number of rescues in reality is much higher. He said off-duty volunteers regularly pull people from rips without entering those numbers into the system, and not every patrol updates the statistics immediately after each shift.

“Some won’t put full data in until after the school holidays,” Mr Jones said. “There is a reliance on the individual, so at this stage those numbers are under-reported.”

Mr Jones said people not being able to recognise rips and the number of unpatrolled beaches along the coastline were two of the greatest concerns. The region he looks after, from Warilla to Mollymook, has had two drownings this season, both at unpatrolled locations - one at Lake Conjola and one at Kiama blowhole.

“Unfortunately it is a regular occurrence at this time of year where people go to unpatrolled beaches on holiday, they don't know the area, they don't know how to read the water or identify rips or currents, and they don't understand the wave forms.

“They see calm water and think it is safe to go in, but that actually signifies a rip. They think it’s safe and then next minute they’re in trouble.”

Mr Jones urged visitors to swim between the flags, but if they were caught in a rip, not to panic.

“Their mindset is to get back to the beach and they waste their energy fighting the rip. By doing that, they’re placing themselves in more danger.”

He said the best thing to do was to float and put your hand up and call for attention.

Surf Life Saving Far South Coast director of lifesaving Cheryl McCarthy agreed that rips were the main cause for concern this summer.

“The season has been great so far on the far south coast, the weather has cooperated and we’ve had a lot of people visiting our beaches,” Ms McCarthy said.

“We’ve certainly had some rescues. A lot of the problems we see at the beach are people coming down and not being able to recognise where rips are, which is a really common problem with beachgoers across the country.

“We encourage you to swim between the flags. It’s our job to figure out where the rips are so we position the flags safely.”

Ms McCarthy said if beachgoers wanted to learn how to spot a rip, they could ask advice from patrolling members who were always happy to chat.

The past week in particular had been busy due to the hot weather, Ms McCarthy said.

“We’ve had lots of visitors down to the beach and everyone is just having a good time, which is nice to see.”