Lifesavers warn of dangerous conditions following weekend double tragedies

"You don't need to fish when there's a big swell, just don't do it," stressed Surf lifesaving volunteer Chris Briggs.

The two Far South Coast deaths were among seven across the state during a disastrous Easter break.

"If you're going to go rock fishing, you've got to consider the conditions," Mr Briggs said.

"I've been a surfer all my life, and I've had people standing on rocks go, 'Aren't you scared of sharks?' and I've gone, 'Have you seen the statistics for rock fisherman and surfer deaths?"

The acting director of Lifesaving for the Far South Coast branch said it was obvious how dangerous surf conditions had been over the long weekend.

But people were still risking their lives and not wearing life jackets.

"It's a great place when it's nice and flat, warm and calm, but people have got to take care when the seas are up," he said.

"We're lifesavers, that's what we do. We are trained to save lives, do CPR, do first-aid, administer oxygen and use a defib, pull people out of the surf, but preferably living people."

Along with two fatalities, on the Far South Coast, there were also 10 rescues and 117 preventions over the long weekend.

"Preventions are telling people who are coming down to the water to just go back up," Mr Briggs said.

"I had one of my patrol captains down at Pambula Beach on Saturday, and he said he had five 18-20-year-olds mucking around. He told them, 'We don't want to be collecting you out at sea'.

"We had one of our duty officers up at Batemans Bay who was patrolling on Malua Bay Beach and said five guys were about to go snorkel. He is very calm and diplomatic, but he lost it.

"He had probably spent the last four hours on the radio trying to coordinate rescues up and down the coast, and then these guys decided they're going to go snorkel."

Mr Briggs said the two drownings this week followed another one only four weeks ago at Boydtown, where two men got swept off rocks. One was saved, and one man was not.

"And that was ridiculous where they were. We were down there searching for three days to try and retrieve the body, and where the esky and fishing rod were, [I thought], 'You've got to be kidding'," Mr Briggs said.

"There are really good estuaries around here in Merimbula, Pambula and Eden, so don't rock fish, but the biggest problem is how do we get that across to [international tourists]?"

Mr Briggs said the coming weekend's weather was not expected to be as big, but there was still a decent swell that was forecast to increase from Wednesday, April 23.