Eden Park skateboard spat goes viral

A still from the video shows security guard Lance Wharewaka with the skateboard.

A video showing a spat between a security guard and a skater in which the guard furiously snaps the board in two has gone viral on YouTube.

The Eden Park guard told a group of skaters they were trespassing before smashing the board against a gate and throwing it into the street, the video shows.

The video of the confrontation has been watched on YouTube more than 10,000 times in a day.

The skateboarders - a university student who wanted to be known only as Jerome, Joel Charlesworth, Ethan O'Shea and Jan Tee - said they went to Eden Park on Saturday and found the gate open, so went inside.

Towards the end of their ride, a security guard spotted the four skaters and told them to leave.

"And we told him that we were leaving anyway, but then he just started sprinting at us and we just started running," Joel, 17, told the Herald.

"Then he caught up to my friend [Jerome] and took his board."

Jerome then started filming on a camera he had brought with him so the skaters could film their tricks.

Joel said the group knew they were in the wrong and wouldn't go back to Eden Park, but called the guard's actions "pretty uncalled for".

Eden Park spokeswoman Tracy Morgan would only say that there was a break-in at the park on Saturday and that the people were caught and evicted.

The guard could not be reached for comment.