The Sunny Sandy Bay turned on the waves for the second comp of the Hyundai Pro Longboard Tour.

After scoring some primo waves in Raglan last week, my wife and I drove up to Whangarei for the comp where we found some super fun waves that were much like Titahi Bay back home. It was about 2-4ft with fresh onshores to start day one of the contest off, perfect, just what im used to! I was seeded through to round 3 which was algoods until I saw round two. Taylor Jensen, World number 2 and USA champ won his heat and was in my round 3 heat… I also had two other really good surfers in my heat. At first my head spun out and I began to freak – but I went for a free surf and got my focus sorted! I came second to Taylor but was only 1 point away from him..

Heres a video of the semi’s and final. I have one wave on it, about 1min and 8seconds in. Plus here’s more about the comp…

Next was the quarter final where I had Australian champ Trent Dickie, NZ no.2 Thomas Kibblewhite and Mt Maunganui ripper Owen Barnes. Heres what the surfingnz press release said about the quarter finals:

“2009 Hyundai Pro Longboard Tourhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZbiEhXWWaMMichael Burling (Hawkes Bay) surfed the fun waves on offer with some powerful turns linking all the way through to the beach. Shane Baxter (Dunedin) also showed good form and the renowned big wave surfer from Otago proved he can mix it up on the longboard as well.

However it was Kirk Beyer (Wellington) that stole the show in the second half of heat two smashing his way into first place. Owen Barnes (Mount Maunganui) surfed a solid heat all the way through and managed to secure himself a spot in the semifinals.”

Pretty stoked with that ay! So I made it to the Semi finals where it was myself and Owen Barnes, surfing against ex world Champ Josh Constable and Taylor Jensen again. SurfingNZ called it “The heat of the day was semi-final two featuring former World Champion (2006) Josh Constable (Noosa, AUS) and USA Champion Taylor Jensen (Oceanside, CA). Constable surfed a perfect ten point ride and had the crowd on their feet. A punchy right hander delivered itself to Constable and he started the wave by smashing a vertical re-entry followed by a free fall drop, and a sequence of big turns to the shore. Jensen (CA) also surfed some solid waves linking critical nose rides with big sharp turns”.

I couldn’t keep up with those guys but managed to beat Owen. I fished 3rd in the semi which meant I finished 5th overall in the comp – a result that I am pretty stoked with! Great points to start the years attack off with!!