The Billabong Pro presented by Sony, scheduled to take place at Whangamata this weekend is postponed due to an unfavourable swell forecast.

The second of four events on the New Zealand Pro Series has been rescheduled for February 10-12 at Whangamata.

Gisborne surfer Bobby Hansen will be one of the top seeds at the Billabong Pro in Whangamata in a fortnight. Photo: PhotoCPL.

The event now coincides with event two of the Billabong Grom Series presented by Oceanbridge scheduled for the same weekend.
'The calendar of events is full for summer so we thought it would be a great opportunity to hold the Billabong Pro on the same weekend as the Grom Series at Whanga and make an action packed weekend of it,” says Billabong events manager AJ Matthews.
The Billabong Pro will remain a three day event commencing on Friday, February 10 while the Grom Series will start on Saturday, February 11 as originally scheduled.

Combined with the two surfing events will be the land based activities with Skinny bringing horizontal bungy and slum dunk as well as a massive blow up soccer pitch to the beach.
'We are sure the groms will enjoy surfing as part of a bigger event and sharing the weekend with all of the best surfers in New Zealand,” says AJ.
It was a tough decision to postpone the event, but after assessing conditions for the early part of this week with differing outlooks, the forecast took a turn for the worst overnight Tuesday forcing the postponement.
'It was looking promising for a small swell to build through Sunday and into Monday which would have allowed us to complete the event but that changed last night and the swell has been pushed out by 24 hours.”
When the event recommences, New Zealand's top echelon of surfers will converge on Whangamata.

The delay could allow the return from injury of Maz Quinn from Gisborne, who missed the recent national championships held at Piha due to a back injury.
New national champion Billy Stairmand, who was entered in this weekend's event, will now be unavailable alongside Matt Hewitt from Mount Maunganui.

The two surfers are competing in an international event in Queensland, Australia at that time.

Likewise Jay Quinn from Gisborne and defending champion of the event, Richard Christie, will be surfing in an event in Brazil to start their international campaign for 2012.
The absence of these four surfers will open the stage for the remainder of the field to step up to the winner's podium for the first time this year and build some rating points on the New Zealand Pro Series.

Finalists at the national champs, Chris Malone and Tim O'Connor will want to continue with their good form and the return of Bobby Hansen will also bring some much anticipated hype to the event.
In the women's division, new national champion Thandi Durham-Tipene will be out to impress yet again while 2011 national champion Airini Mason has also entered the event with both surfers expected to raise the bar in the division.
The under-20 men's division will contest their first event of the year at the Billabong Pro presented by Sony.

Great Barrier's Sid West will go into the event as the number one seed after placing fourth overall in 2011.

He will be challenged by the likes of Ben Poulter from Raglan, Alex Dive from Mount Maunganui and Tane Wallis from Piha.
The Billabong Pro presented by Sony is in its eighth consecutive year and boasts the largest prize pool of the New Zealand Pro Series with over $12,800 of cash and prizes up for grabs.