Kibblewhite gets most out of dying waves

Mount Maunganui's Ant McColl had to be content with a semifinal surf as Rodney's Thomas Kibblewhite made the best possible start to the 2012 Hyundai longboard tour, convincingly winning the first event at Raglan's Manu Bay.

Kibblewhite posted 16.07 out of a possible 20 points in a wave-starved final and claimed the edge over his opponents early on the five-event tour.

In the final Kibblewhite posted his two best scores early on thanks to his trademark backhand vertical attack. His strategy of getting a quick start clearly paid dividends.

"I looked at it all day and it got consistent for a while but when the tide went out it slacked off so I knew the quick start was the key because you never know what could happen over 25 minutes with the tide going out even further and sure enough it went pretty dead toward the end," Kibblewhite said.

Reflecting on the event as a whole Kibblewhite admitted to "saving his best until last" in the final to eclipse his opponents who all had at least one good wave but lacked the good second scoring rides.

Dylan Barnfield (Ohope) placed second in the final after earlier beating Kibblewhite in the semifinals. McColl surfed in the same semifinal but was off the pace, finishing last.

Kibblewhite now takes the lead on the tour heading into the national championships where he is the defending champion.

Mischa Davis (Piha), fresh back from a year studying in Europe, won the women's longboard final.

Nic Jones led the under-18 boys' final from the outset after posting a 9.0 point ride on his first wave, with Mt Maunganui's Josh Taylor fourth.

Mount's Mal Brady was second in the over-40 final.

Mt Maunganui will host the fourth round of the longboarding tour on February 18-19.

Men's Longboard results

Final: Thomas Kibblewhite (Auck), 16.07, 1, Dylan Barnfield (Ohope), 12.87, 2, Sam Johnson (Gis), 11.07, 3, Phil Morris (Auck), 9.83, 4.

Under-18 final: Nic Jones (Aust), 17.67, 1, Ben Poulter (Rag), 14.77, 2, Sam Poulter (Rag), 12.23, 3, Josh Taylor (Tau), 10.13, 4.

Women: Mischa Davis (Oratia)14.73, 1, Alexis Poulter (Rag), 10.90, 2, Shelly Jones (Auck), 8.0, 3, Anna Jolly (Piha), 6.77, 4.

Over-40 men: Brian Young (Orewa) 14.83, 1, Mal Brady (Mnt) , 9.57, 2, Steve Tyro (Rag) , 8.97, 3, Guy Rencher (Waihi Bch), 8.63, 4.

Over-50: Mike Thomson (Rag), 13.5, 1, Mark Hoyle (Orewa), 11.60, 2, Grant Cochrane (ChCh), 10.47, 3.