The penultimate event of the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour takes place at Mount Maunganui this weekend with a world class line up of surfers as confirmed competitors.


Mount Longboarder Ant McColl is hoping some home town support will help at this weekend's Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour event at Tay Street. Photo by PhotoCPL.

This, the fourth of five events, takes place at Tay Street where six divisions are being contested as well as the increasingly popular Stand Up Paddleboard Race.

The increased attention to the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour has seen entries sky rocket to record levels.

This has forced organisers to limit entrants to one division only to ensure the event can be run in two days.

The surf conditions for the event look excellent with a clean 1m swell that will hold throughout the weekend.

This year's event has attracted international surfers Josh Constable from Australia and American Taylor Jensen. Josh won the most recent leg of the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour at Sandy Bay, an event that also doubled as part of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Australasia Longboard Qualifying Series.

Josh has won two of the three events to date this year and leads the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour despite being ineligible to compete at the national championships and therefore missing that event. Should he go on to win the event this weekend he will be hard to beat in two weeks time when the tour heads to Port Waikato for the finale.

Taylor Jensen will also be keen to notch up a win after being unexpectedly dumped out of the last event in the semi finals. He has toured New Zealand on several occasions winning events at Kaikoura, Christchurch and Sandy Bay.

National champion Thomas Kibblewhite from Auckland is the only Kiwi to have won an event this year and is currently ranked second on the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour. Thomas, a New Zealand representative in 2010, will be looking to stay within reach of Josh this weekend if he is to have a shot at claiming the overall title at Port Waikato.

Mount Maunganui surfers to look out for are Ant McColl and Duncan Cameron who have both been in good form of late. Surfing at their home break and in front of a home town crowd will give them the boost that is needed for a good result.

Ant is ranked seventh on the ratings in a tight bunch of surfers where a good result could see him catapult into the top five but a poor result could see him slip outside the top 10.

The Women's Division is fast becoming a two horse race with front runner Shelley Jones holding a slim lead over fellow Aucklander Hannah Howard. Hannah will be looking for her first win of the year to push Jones back down the ratings.

In the senior divisions, it is Brendon Young from Auckland with a massive lead in the Over 40s after winning the first two events.

Brendon could clinch the series this weekend with another win.

In the Over 50s, Viv Treacy (Whangarei) is in the same situation after winning the first two events.

The Stand Up Paddleboard Division sees Daniel Kereopa from Raglan pushing out to a healthy lead again winning two events and placing second in the third event. The national champion will hope he can get back to the winners dais this weekend.

He will also hope that he can challenge SUP Race leader Jeremy Stephenson from Auckland who has taken out the last two races.

He won the first race at Piha when the surf was a little more challenging and this weekend the situation could be the same which will no doubt provide a great spectacle for those at the beach.