Bondi Beach is one of Sydney’s and Australia’s most iconic beaches. Drawing over two and a half million visitors every single year, the beach is famous for its azure blue seas, golden sands, and throngs of the ‘body beautiful’ who come to enjoy and enhance the scenery in equal measure.
And yet, a newly released video from the Bondi Rescue YouTube channel — wherein lifeguards that appear in the hit TV show get to react and respond to their own work as well as that of their close colleagues — shows a darker side to the beach as well as the complex approaches that the lifeguards must adopt to keep the perpetrators at bay…
WATCH: The Bondi Rescue team walk us through how they handle the beach’s dark side…
The video hones in on the issue of sexual harassment on the beach, wherein some visitors — mostly women and girls — are subjected to unwanted and inappropriate advances from men wandering the beach with bad intentions. From unsolicited touches, kisses, and even one attempt to re-tie a sunbather’s bikini top, the brashness of the perpetrators is undeniably shocking.
Even more shocking is that this behaviour is often carried out by a very small number of people who, despite interventions from lifeguards and police, feel compelled to return to the beach again and again, making the same kind of unwanted advances on women, assuming that the lifeguards on duty will either not have seen them before or simply forgotten their previous actions.
Invariably, however, their behaviour is either flagged by its victims or spotted by the eagle-eyed team from Bondi Rescue, who respond swiftly and severely. Sometimes their requests for perpetrators to leave the beach are met with flushed cheeks and a quick walk of shame inland. On other occasions, however, things can turn violent. In one section of the video, a man can be seen resisting intervention from police before being carried away in handcuffs.
Another, perhaps more unexpected, aspect of this issue is the reaction it can spark from those who are affected. In a later segment of the video, a partner of one of the affected women can be seen throwing punches at a man he believes to be the perpetrator, creating yet more high emotions for the lifeguards to manage, proving that their job can become a lot more complex and dangerous than many might imagine.
While we certainly wouldn’t want to put you off visiting such a beautiful part of the world, it never hurts to be informed. It also certainly doesn’t hurt to take a moment to consider just what the dedicated team of lifeguards are up against. As regulars down at the Eastern Suburb’s many beaches, we at DMARGE thank them for their service.