The program follows the daily lives and routines of the Waverley Council professional lifeguards who patrol Bondi Beach.

On 12 October 2022, it was officially announced that the show had been renewed for a seventeenth season which premiered on 19 April 2023, after a year-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and poor weather conditions.

Every once in a while, celebrities also make appearances on their shores; these have included actors David Hasselhoff (star of the fictional lifeguard show Baywatch), Hugh Grant, Zac Efron, Rowan Atkinson and Russell Crowe, entrepreneur Richard Branson, comedian Conan O'Brien (whose appearance was also broadcast in his own show, Conan), musician Snoop Dogg, media personality Paris Hilton, conservationist Steve Irwin and his daughter Bindi, pro-surfer Kelly Slater, and the Indian Cricket Team.

The race is handicapped: the more accomplished swimmers and board-paddlers set off from Bondi later (up to twelve minutes, depending on how many competitors there are).

When deemed safe to do so, the cameraman accompanies the lifeguards out to sea and has even had to assist with rescue operations on a number of occasions.

The production company pays Waverley Council an access fee to film the program on Bondi Beach.

[18][19] The spin-off followed two months delegations of the Bondi lifeguards (including Dean 'Deano' Gladstone, Andrew 'Reidy' Reid, Ryan 'Whippet' Clark, Chris 'Chappo/Chips' Chapman, Tom 'Egg' Bunting, Matt 'Matty' Dee, Aaron 'Azza' and Kobi Graham and mission chief Terry 'Tezz' McDermott) as they were assigned to a two-month stint at Kuta Beach, dealing with the more humid climate, a much larger beach, an exceptionally strong surf and the absence of the rescue equipment they had back home (even in ambulances), making it the world's most deadly guarded beach: twelve fatalities in an average year.

[3][20] They join the hundred strong local life guards, supervised by popular singer Marcello Arayafaya, in an official international exchange program.