LIFESAVERS say they’re “completely frustrated” with so many beachgoers swimming outside the flags this summer.

And Surf Life Saving WA admits the swim-between-the-flags message has become “white noise” and is often ignored.

It has prompted the organisation to seek new ways — including a kids’ computer game — to get its surf safety message across.

Swimmers were blatantly disregarding the red-and-yellow flags when The Sunday Timesvisited City Beach at 9am on Thursday, with only 16 people swimming in the flagged area and another 18 frolicking nearby.

“It’s completely frustrating,” said SLSWA lifesaving and training general manager Chris Peck. “We’ve set up a safety system to make sure people can be as a safe as they possibly can.

“In 100 years across the country, no person has drowned while swimming between the flags. The further you are from the flags, the less likely you are to be seen immediately and the longer the response time will be.”

He acknowledged some swimmers could “look after themselves” but said many who swam outside the flags “underestimate the environment or overestimate their abilities”.

The warning comes as the number of “preventative actions” carried out by WA lifesavers from December 1-20 this summer surged to 1980, up 20 per cent from 1452 preventative actions in the same period last summer.

Mr Peck said drones were increasingly being used during surf-lifesaving patrols and an extra 10 elevated lifesaver surveillance towers would be installed at WA beaches before the end of summer. He said they were partly to help spot sharks and identify rips and other hazards but the drones and towers were also useful to monitor the many people swimming outside the flags.

“We’ve had to accept that people aren’t always going to swim between the flags ... We’ve got to find other ways of getting to them,” Mr Peck said.

He said the swim-between-the-flags message was often ignored and “can become white noise”.

“We are constantly running the mantra ‘please swim between the flags’. But is there a bit of white noise around that? I think so,” he said.

“We’ll continue to provide that message, but we’re also working on strategies on how we get the message through, such as targeting school-aged children to get into the psyche of kids and start building a culture.”

As part of the strategy, SLSWA has released an app-based children’s game called Safety Beach.

University of NSW surf academic Rob Brander, better known as Dr Rip, agreed the nationwide swim-between-the-flags campaign had “lost its effectiveness”.

“We know people aren’t swimming between the flags and there are so many beaches that are unpatrolled,” Dr Brander said.

He said better education was essential, particularly about rips, which are the biggest killers at Australians beaches.

Royal Life Saving figures show 291 people died in Australia’s waterways last financial year.