Emergency services attended to reports of people having difficulty in the water this morning near Matakana Island.

After attending the scene, services deemed the report as a false alarm, however the event has sparked a reminder to continue to report incidents where swimmers look to be in danger.

'From their vantage point, it looked like some people had fallen out of a boat,” says Eastern Region lifesaving manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell.

'We responded along with police, but it turned out that the group were quite experienced surfers.”

'It is really great that someone was vigilant enough to make a report about what was going on.”

'We would rather go out to these calls and have everything be okay, than not be called out at all.”

It also sparked a reminder for people to be safe out on the water during the rough conditions caused by ex-cyclone Fili.

'There is a lot of water moving around at the moment.”

'There's a lot of strong rips, especially around Omanu beach down to Pāpāmoa.”

'We are urging people to be very careful out there. There are no patrols around at the moment. Please assess the conditions if you're going out and take a friend with you.”

'If you're not comfortable or not a good swimmer, our advice is to stay out of the water at this time.”

'If you see someone who looks like they're in trouble in the water, please call 111 and ask for police directly.”

'Make sure you know how you can describe their location to the phone operator, using an address or landmark. From that point the police can contact our surf lifeguards directly.”