A plea is going out from Pukehina Surf Rescue following the theft of vital equipment including quad bikes and radio equipment which has put the club's patrol season at risk.

On Wednesday at about 4.30am the club was broken into through a side door, with thieves making off with two quad bikes, newly installed radio equipment, a rescue board and some first aid gear.

A Yamaha quad bike, similar to the one pictured, was stolen from the Pukehina Surf Rescue club on Tuesday night. Photo: Supplied.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand Eastern Regional Manager Chris Emmett says the club has a monitored alarm but by the time locals had responded, the thieves had already made off with the equipment.

Pukehina club captain Kevin Barugh says the thieves have jimmied the lock on a side door at the club, before smashing it.

'They have run the bikes all the way along the main road,” says Kevin. 'Where they have gone to from there, I wouldn't have a clue.”

'At a replacement cost of around $30,000, it is a huge amount of money for a voluntary organisation to cover and the timing could not be worse with voluntary weekend patrols starting at Pukehina on December 13 and the weekday Regional Lifeguard Service starting on December 22.

'At the end of the day it's a community service and the disheartening part is there is someone in the community that has turned around and taken our stuff.”

Kevin is adamant the club will still patrol its 7km stretch of beach, but the next fortnight will be a frantic scramble to pull in outside resources – whether it is begging or borrowing.

He says the club will be able to get sufficient gear before the start of patrol from insurance and with the help of other organisations, but the quality of the gear would likely not be as good as what was stolen.

'We have radios but we don't have full coverage on the beach because they were set up to work on the quad bikes,” he adds.

'Everything was set up was to help patrol that length of beach. It's specific to Pukehina.”

Kevin says the beach has a fairly dangerous bar and being able to keep watch over beachgoers is vital.

'If we have an easy summer with brilliant weather and sea conditions are lovely, Pukehina will be a breeze,” he says. 'But if we have a summer with storms and swells running it will be tough.”

The police have been contacted and anyone who has information about the theft is urged to contact police immediately.