Surf lifesavers are warning people to take care on Auckland's west coast

A person died at Waiuku's Kariotahi Beach yesterday, while there were mass rescues there and down the coast at Port Waikato's Sunset Beach.

Northern Region Search and Rescue supervisor John-Michael Swannix is urging people to remember the three Rs when they're caught in a rip.

Relax and float on your back; raise your hand to signal for help and ride the rip, don't exhaust yourself fighting the current.

He says it's always more dangerous to swim when the tide is going out and all the incidents in the past week have been on an outgoing tide.

The death is the third fatality on the Northern West Coast in the past week, and lifeguards have made more than 60 rescues since the weekend.