It had been three years since the Rip Curl Pro was held at Bells, a lengthy hiatus when you consider that prior to the pandemic it had run every year since 1961. A less-than-promising forecast in the days and weeks leading up to the event cast doubts about the quality of waves that would be on offer, but if ever we needed a reminder that forecasts can change, then we got it at Bells. Day after day of perfect right-handers rolled their way into the picturesque beach over the Easter weekend, and though the wave quality was better for the early rounds than the finals, this was still a memorable few days of surfing at one of the sport’s most iconic breaks.
The Men
The men’s return to Bells began in solid if slightly bumpy conditions in the opening round, which saw the bulk of the top ranked surfers advance through to the Round of 32. Griffin Colapinto, winner in Portugal at the previous event, was one exception, losing in Heat 4, before Mick Fanning’s return to competitive surfing, much to the dismay of the crowd, was threatened to be cut short when he was also sent to the Elimination Round half an hour later. Kanoa Igarashi was the standout of the round, dominating his heat en route to a 16.24 in a display befitting of the yellow jersey he was wearing.
The Elimination Round began with local wildcard Tully Wylie being eliminated, but the eyes of the surfing world were on the second heat, which saw Fanning pitted against Seth Moniz and Morgan Cibilic in a tough heat for this stage of the event. Fortunately, Fanning’s modest 11.90 heat total was enough to see him finish second, and it was Moniz who was a surprise early exit. Conner Coffin was another to have his contest prematurely ended, before South Africa’s Matthew McGillivray bowed out in the final heat.
The Round of 32 kicked off on Thursday, and conditions could not have been much better if they were being churned out of Kelly Slater’s wave pool. Double overhead sets were marching through the lineup what felt like every couple of minutes, and an inordinate number of heats were decided in the dying stages. Colapinto was the first victim of a close one, going down to Owen Wright, before Owen’s brother Mikey was on the other side of a tight one when he narrowly went down to Toledo in a high-quality heat. An hour later, Joao Chianco put on one of the performances of his life when he scored 17.73; unfortunately, he came up against an unstoppable John John Florence, who knocked him out with an 18.86. Heat 9 produced probably the most nail-biting half an hour of the round, with Fanning matched up against Igarashi. One would be forgiven for expecting a 40-year-old who hadn’t surfed competitively for three years to struggle against the world number one, but one would also be wrong. Fanning went on to score 15.77 and send Igarashi packing early. It was an extraordinary day of surfing; one which saw eight of the last 12 heats decided by one point or less in what must have been one of the tightest rounds in CT history.
The Round of 16 was always going to struggle to live up to the quality of both the waves and the contests in the preceding round, but it started off promisingly when Wright beat Nat Young 16.40-15.77 in a fantastic heat. Over the next couple of hours, Filipe Toledo and Florence stamped themselves as the two to beat when they put up massive scores, before any fairytale prospects for Fanning were extinguished courtesy of a last minute 7.77 ride by Callum Robson, which put the up-and-coming Aussie ahead of his idol by just 0.23 points. The round finished with an impressive showing by the ever-improving Jack Robinson, before Italo Ferreira snuck over the line against a plucky Samuel Pupo.
We were forced to wait until Saturday afternoon for the quarterfinals, with the event put on hold as we anticipated a growing swell. It eventually arrived, but unfortunately the wind picked up in the afternoon too, so while we had good size for the quarterfinals, we didn’t have the glassy ocean we’d enjoyed watching the days prior. Nonetheless, the four heats were compelling viewing. Ethan Ewing continued his impressive ascent with a dominant win over Wright, but it was the ensuing heat between Toledo and Florence – a matchup fit for a final – which captured everyone’s attention. Despite the fact that Florence didn’t surf near his best and had a number of uncharacteristic falls, he still put together a 14.76 total; unfortunately for him, Toledo managed 16.40. Robson then continued his breakout contest with a win over Miguel Pupo to secure a spot in the final four, before Robinson finalised the quartet with a tight victory over Ferreira which wasn’t decided until they were both out of the water.
It had been a tournament worthy of a grandstand finish, but come Easter Sunday when Ewing and Toledo paddled out for the first semi-final, Huey must have been nursing a hangover from the night prior, because the waves completely switched off. Ewing struggled to find a wave at all and ended with just a 4.1, giving Toledo an easy route to the final. The second semi was a commentator’s nightmare between Robson and Robinson, and again the waves were far from optimal, though at least it was close. In a see-sawing heat, Robson got the chocolates 11.83-11.50, and entered his first ever CT final with his work cut out against a rampaging Toledo.
By the time the final got underway, the waves were barely over head height; not ideal for viewers but perfect for Toledo, who in small-medium conditions is almost impossible to beat. He proved why in the final. Robson was gallant in defeat and did well to compile a 12.94 total, but Toledo’s ability to successfully take to the air when few others would even dream of it gave him a big advantage, and his 14.74 would have been tough for anyone to beat.
That continued a great couple of events for Toledo, who has now finished runner-up and first in consecutive tournaments and will head to Margaret River wearing the yellow jersey as a result. Florence was another big mover, jumping to third, while both Robson and Ewing came from the clouds to edge within reaching distance of the top five. Margaret River will be the last event before the mid-season cut, and there are plenty of high-profile names needing to perform there to keep their spot on the tour. Coffin, Wright and Frederico Morais are all sitting below it at the moment, as is last year’s rookie revelation in Cibilic, and there will be a huge amount on the line for virtually every surfer at Margaret River, be it to solidify a spot near the top five or escape the cut.
The Women
The men’s beginning to the Rip Curl Pro might have been a hard act to follow, but the women certainly did a pretty good job of it. The first two heats of the Opening Round, typically not the most thrilling part of a contest, were compelling, with none of the six surfers finishing their respective heats with a score below 13.06, and no one finishing above 14.40. Sally Fitzgibbons and Courtney Conlogue were the unlucky ones to be sent to the Elimination Round, but they went there with the knowledge that they would be extremely stiff to be sent packing early if they repeated the same performance. The remaining few heats of the round were a little less exciting, with Joanne Defay the standout performance in putting together a 16.67.
The first Elimination Round heat saw Fitzgibbons up against two far less experienced surfers than her in the improving Molly Picklum and American Alyssa Spencer, and she promptly put them to the sword in an impressive display which sent Picklum home early. The second elimination heat was much closer, with just 0.4 points separating the three surfers; Luana Silva won with a 12.16, Conlogue scraped through by the skin of her teeth with an 11.84, while Pipe winner Bettylou Sakara Johnson could count herself extremely unlucky to be eliminated with an 11.76.
The Round of 16 kicked off in some of the best conditions of the event, and Conlogue promptly capitalised on her lucky escape from the previous round with a big win over fellow American Lakey Peterson. Fitzgibbons did the same in the next heat, albeit a little less emphatically, beating Malia Manuel 12.93-12.60. The next few heats weren’t as close, but they produced some elite performances. Bronte Macaulay started it off with a 15.66, before a pretty handy trio consisting of Tyler Wright, Carissa Moore and Steph Gilmore showed their wares over the next couple of hours; Wright the best of the bunch with a 17.24.
She would continue that form in the quarterfinals. Matched up against Macauley in the second heat, she again surpassed a 17-point heat total, demonstrating that slowly but surely, she is working herself back into world title contention. Her win followed Conlogue’s victory over Fitzgibbons, while Moore edged out Gilmore in a captivating heat just after. The fourth heat, between Defay and Brisa Hennessy, included the two lowest heat totals of the round, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t entertaining. It went down to the wire, with Defay falling an agonising 0.03 points short of Hennessy’s total.
This left us with four women standing; the top two ranked in the world, as well as a two-time world champ and the reigning Rip Curl Pro winner. Not a bad lineup, and though the waves were fading by this stage, the intensity of the competition was not. Wright and Conlogue put on a thrilling show in the first semi, trading blows in a heat which saw the Aussie edge out the American 14.23-13.90. Moore and Hennessy put on every bit as good a show; though the latter took just two waves, she made the most of them with a 6.70 and a 7.07. It was a score which would have won her plenty of semis, but Moore is as good a surfer as there is in the world and her two scores in excess of 7 saw her scrape through to another final.
And what a contest that final loomed as. Moore and Wright have won seven of the ten world titles which have been up for grabs since 2011, with Gilmore the only surfer able keep their mitts off the trophy during that time. Wright has, of course, been out of contention over the past few years for a myriad of reasons, but she’s been slowly edging her way back into it and had a great chance here to stamp her name back alongside Moore as this year’s favourite. She made the most of that opportunity. Wright dominated from the outset, laying down an 8.93 with her first wave and backing it up with an 8.00 later in the heat to run out a convincing winner.
That win saw her jump five spots in the world ranking to a tie for second with Hennessy, behind only – you guessed it – Moore. Very little separates the three, before a gap back to fourth sees Peterson, Defay, Tatiana Weston-Webb and Manuel fighting for a spot in the top five. Like with the men’s side of the draw, the women will for the first time be forced to deal with a mid-season cut following the next event at Margaret River, and with only ten spots up for grabs for the second half of the season, competition will be fierce. Both Gilmore and Conlogue just barely have their head above that cutline, while Fitzgibbons is sitting in 12th and will need a decent result to remain on tour.
Bells Beach is arguably the most iconic event in surfing, and its absence from the Championship Tour over the past couple of years has left a void in each of those seasons. As if to compensate for lost time, the waves at the 2022 edition of the event were about as dreamy as it gets, and saw a number of big names begin to make moves up their respective leaderboard. Equally, however, plenty of Tour favourites find themselves dangerously close to the cut line. And, with only a handful of days separating the end of the Rip Curl Pro and the opening of the event window at the Margaret River Pro, make or break time is just around the corner for both the men and the women.
