Surf Life Saving Queensland is warning school leavers soon to celebrate along the state's coast about the dangers of swimming while intoxicated after a number of drownings in the past year.
Gold Coast operations manager Nathan Fife said more than three-quarters of the drownings across the region last year were people who were intoxicated with drugs or alcohol.
He said it was one of lifesavers' greatest concerns for schoolies week, with incidents often occurring outside patrol hours.
"People are just taking too much of a risk when they having been drinking and do some dumb things including swimming after hours and at night.
"If you do that you're not just risking your life, but you're also risking the people that need to save your life, like a lifesaver."
According to Surf Life Saving Queensland there were 20 drowning deaths across Queensland beaches last season, which ran from September 2020 to May, with eight of those on the Gold Coast.
"Eighty per cent of those drownings were because people were under the influence of alcohol," Mr Fife said.
He said additional staff would be rostered on and other preparations in place for schoolies week, kicking off mid-November, to try and prevent any further incidents.
"With schoolies being up and running this year again at Surfers Paradise we've got extra lifesavers on, we'll have helicopters, patrols, and we have an on-call emergency rescue teams," he said.
"So anything that happens after hours we'll have them on call if needed.
"We will have patrol flags up [during the day] and extra lifesavers, but we still need people to swim at those patrol locations and during those times.
"The beach will be open from 8am to 5pm, so please only go between those times. Please listen to our lifesavers and lifeguards and stay out of the water at night".
According to Royal Life Saving Australia there were 294 drownings in Australian waterways during the 2019-20 season, with 66 in Queensland.
Eighty per cent of those were males, with the majority in rivers, creeks, and beaches.
Over a quarter were people swimming and doing recreational activities.
A further 674 non-fatal incidents occurred during the same period.
According to Surf Life Saving Queensland, of beach rescues alone nearly 90 per cent were rescued outside patrol flags, with 80 per cent of those rescues Australians.
