Piha Surf Life Saving Club (sometimes called Piha Lifeguard Service) is a surf lifesaving club for the southern section of Piha, on the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand, some 45 km from the Auckland City centre. The patrol was featured in the TVNZ reality show Piha Rescue. The club is the best-known of 17 surf lifesaving clubs in the Northern Region of New Zealand, and possibly one of the best-known surf lifesaving clubs in the entire country. Its high-profile is partly being due to its participation in the television series and partly through its location on one of the country's most-popular surfing beaches. The beach is also a regular venue for the annual "Piha Big Wave Surf Boat Classic". The club was founded in January 1934 by, Frank Ross, Cliff Holt, Bert Holt, Stan Holt, Laurie Wilson, and as such is the oldest club on Auckland's West Coast. The club colours were chosen as black, red and green. Black for the iron sands of the West Coast, red for the sunsets above the Tasman Sea to the West, and green for the forest clad Waitākere Ranges that separate Piha from Auckland City. Piha has been the home club of many national champions in surf life saving and other sports, among them former Commonwealth Games swimming gold medallist Dave Gerrard, national boxing champion Jackie Jenkins, and the champion swimmer Buddy Lucas. Patrolling statistics The table below give a summary of the Patrol statistics for the Volunteer Lifeguards of Piha SLSC. This table excludes the statistics for the paid Regional Lifeguards who use Piha Surf Life Saving Club's equipment and facilities. Rescue and bravery awards Meritorious Award for Bravery in Bronze, 1963. Lifeguard: Don (E. D.) Wright Wales Bank Outstanding Rescue of the Year Award, 1980. Lifeguard: Murray Bray Meritorious Award for Bravery, 1984. Lifeguards: Murray Bray & George Thomson Piha Lifeguard Service, BP Surf Rescue of the Year, 2001. Lifeguards: Nick Kinghorn and Graham Valentine. Rescue of the Month, March 2008. Awarded to Piha and United North Piha Life Guards for their combined rescue and advanced scene management. Life Guards involved: Abbi Manley, Cali Manley, Liz Manley, Vanda Karolczak, Paul Picot, Gary Turton, Ukiah Brown, Tony Featherstone (PC), Paul Downey, Jason Anderson, Merrin O'Brien, Jess Hosking, Jonathon Webber, Geoff Calvert, Hayley Seymour, Leif Neilson, Brent Airey. Rescue of the Month, November 2009. Lifeguards: Duncan Clarke, Geoff Calvert and Rob Wakelin.