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Titahi Bay surfer Jason Wilson-Haenga tried to pull Albert Alapati to safety. - Source: Fairfax -
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The police dive squad has not been able to locate a 25-year-old swimmer missing at Titahi Bay.
Former Porirua College head boy Albert Alapati was swimming with four others on Saturday afternoon when the group was caught in a rip.
Members of the dive squad spent several hours at Titahi Beach today.
Senior Constable Dan O'Connell says a Department of Conservation ranger will do a further search of Mana Island this evening and Surf Lifesaving New Zealand will carry out a further shoreline search tomorrow morning.
The talented sportsman and Otago University student was caught in a rip close to shore with his teenage brother and three female cousins, who were all rescued.
Titahi Bay surfer Jason Wilson-Haenga said he was devastated he could not save Alapati, who was torn from his arms as he tried to hold him afloat above the massive waves.
"I was hugging on to him front on, so I could see his face. When you look at someone like that when they're just about gone ... if I had been on dry land I probably could have saved him," he said.
"I'm just so sad I couldn't bring that boy back."
Wilson-Haenga, 37, was on his board in the 1.5-metre swells with friends when he noticed people being swept out into the notorious Titahi Bay rip current.
Paddling into the rip, he saw boatie Mike Pearson getting "hammered" by the swells as he went to help two swimmers - so turned his attention to another head he could see bobbing in the waves.
"I saw there was another girl out at sea so I went over to her and gave her my surfboard. When I gave her the board, she said `What about him?' and lifted her arm to point to the boy," Wilson-Haenga said.
"He was fully submerged under the water and she was holding on to him by his shorts. She was just about gone, she was on her last breath.
"I got her onto the board and just grabbed hold of the young man, I was hugging him like you would a baby.
"Another surfer came over, and just as that happened another big wave hit us and ripped the guy out of my hands. When I came back to the surface, he had disappeared."
Another surfer paddled up, and the three took turns holding on to the young woman in the rough seas for about 20 minutes until the surf lifesaving boat arrived.
"I was talking to her, just trying to calm her down," Wilson-Haenga said. "She was distraught, but she was glad to be alive."
Family joins search
Up to 50 members of the Alapati family were at Titahi Bay Surf Life Saving Club yesterday while police, land search and rescue volunteers, surf lifesavers, Mana Coastguard and the Westpac rescue helicopter searched as far south as Makara.
One of Alapati's best friends is Crusaders rugby player Robbie Fruean, a former schoolmate at Porirua College, who flew back from Christchurch to join the search until early yesterday.
He said the family had not given up hope of Alapati being found alive but hopes were fading.
"You're always going to be hopeful and always hold faith the Lord will bring him back home but, at the end of the day, if reality comes to check us there's nothing more that we can do but just pray."
He grew up with Alapati, whom he called a talented rugby and league player, funny character and natural leader, who was due to complete a computer science degree at Otago this year. "
He was a good friend, a good person. He always made sure his parents were looked after."
Life saving club patrol captain Jess Limerick said Saturday's conditions were rough when the group got caught in a rip at the beach's northern end.
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