RETIRED former Surfing Victoria CEO, Max Wells of Inverloch, says there’s a serious gap in the knowledge people have about the dangers that exist at the state’s open ocean beaches.

He was speaking on Gippsland ABC Radio on Monday this week after two “near misses” over the weekend when four people almost drowned at Kilcunda on Sunday afternoon and a swimmer was rescued by local surfers after patrol hours, at Cape Paterson on Sunday evening.

“I have just spoken to the owner of one of the surf schools down here who knows the three people that did that rescue,” said Mr Wells.

“But there wouldn’t be a surfer with a fair bit of experience surfing in this area who hasn’t been involved in rescues of that kind.

“There’s a real concern about poor decision making,” said Mr Wells.

“Kilcunda was huge at the weekend. I had a look at it and there would be a lot of surfers who wouldn’t go in but there were tents lined up there with people having a day at the beach.”

Mr Wells said the water near the rocks, at the trestle-bridge end of the Kilcunda beach, often looked smooth and inviting but noted there had been a rip in that location for 40 years.

“What surfers do when they get to the beach, is stop before they consider going in and assess if there body-boarding or surfing skills are up to what they are seeing.

“It’s something swimmers should be doing as well,” he said.

But Mr Wells said there was a serious gap in people’s knowledge about the conditions at open ocean surf beaches even if they have done a learn to swim program.

“They might have learned to swim in a controlled pool location, but it’s a very different situation to what you’ll experience when you go to an open surf beach.”

“There’s a gap in our knowledge at the moment, what we are seeing when we go to the beach and assessing whether we can go out in the conditions we are seeing.”