Home of the world’s longest-running surf competition, Torquay’s Bells Beach holds a special charm in the minds of professional surfers worldwide. Ringing the prestigious bell at Easter’s Rip Curl Pro remains a paramount career goal for many of the sport’s best athletes. Michelle Herbison laps up the growing excitement in the lead-up to this year’s competition by speaking to a few pros.
Surfer Sally Fitzgibbons still gets goose-bumps when she remembers the first of her two back-to-back wins at Torquay’s Rip Curl Pro.
After a string of second places, beating Hawaiian Carissa Moore in 2011 to ring the prestigious bell gave the determined athlete that “most unbelievable feeling” she had been striving for her entire surfing career.
Hailed the “Holy Grail” of surfing by champions of the sport worldwide, the iconic Rip Curl Pro retains the record as the world’s longest-running surfing competition as it prepares for its 52nd event this year.
Torquay became “Victoria’s surfing Mecca” after local surfers Vic Tantau and Peter Troy organised the first “Bells Beach Rally” in 1962.
The Rip Curl Pro turned professional in 1973 and ever since, Bells Beach has hosted the world’s greatest surfers and myriad fans to witness some of the sport’s most memorable moments.
Michelle Herbison also talks to Mick Fanning and local surf gurus Adam Robertson and Bob Smith. Flick to page 22 in GC’s autumn edition to read on.
