Onshore breeze, no Barneys, surfs macking!
The Rip Curl Pro is the longest-running surfing contest on the World Surf League's Championship Tour, having recently celebrated its 60th birthday. It's also regarded as one of the world's most prestigious surfing competitions, attracting top male and female surfers from around the world to Bells Beach on the Victorian south-west coast.
The iconic event, held across Easter weekend, has become a fixture of the Victorian sporting calendar. Over several days, thousands of spectators line the beach and clifftops that form a natural amphitheatre around the mercurial Bells break and nearby Winkipop to catch the action.
As the fourth of 11 rounds of the World Surf League Championship Tour, and one of only two Australian stops, the Rip Curl Pro attracts a national and international audience of surfing fans, and is also televised around the world.
The event was first run in 1962, and has a prestigious honour roll including four-time winners Mick Fanning, Kelly Slater and Mark Richards in the men's competition, and Stephanie Gilmore and Lisa Andersen on the women's side. The winners each year triumphantly ring the bell that forms the centrepiece of the event's unique trophy.
