Brothers Grant and Phil Rowe will be looking to best the other in the Sand to Surf swimming race.

They will be among hundreds of competitors down at the Mount Main Beach this morning, testing their ocean swimming skills in surf conditions.

Neither of the brothers are strangers to the water, having both been part of surf lifesaving. They both also train regularly with Sheryl McLay at Team Shorebreak Inc in the Mount.

Grant's competed for the last three years, and says he does swimming to keep his fitness up.

'These sort of events are the motivation to keep the training up.”

Younger brother Phil agrees. 'I've always done swimming myself. This is going to be my first Sand to Surf event, but I do the Round the Mount swim every year, so I really enjoy that. I've also done some team events, such as the Tin Man.

'I'm pretty competitive once I get in the water.”

The race route is about 2.6km for the long-distance swimmers, taking them out and around Motuotau (Rabbit) Island in anti-clockwise direction, then along behind Moturiki (Leisure) Island, before finishing up on the beach again.

Grant says it takes him about 45 minutes, with most swimmers coming in between 40 minutes and an hour.

As to a rivalry between the two brothers, Grant quashes any notions of brotherly competition.

'I wish there was – he's far too fast for me!”

'He's probably being realistic there,” laughs Phil.

As well as the long-distance event at 9.30am, there be smaller 1000m and 500m races at 11.30am for less-experienced swimmers, along with a 200m race for kids near the shoreline at 12.30pm.

Sand to Surf is on November 19 from 9am-2pm at Mount Main Beach. For more information, see: www.mytauranga.co.nz