THE stars of the surf put on a show — from Cronulla to Bells beach on the Victorian coast — as nature gave them the waves that late autumn so often provides.
Sally Fitzgibbons just missed out yesterday on a chance for a third victory in the famous Ripcurl Pro at Bells beach.
However, her equal third-place is the best result so far this season for Fitzgibbons, the Cronulla Boardriding Club surfer from the NSW south coast and one of the big personalities of the pro tour circuit.
Earlier, Fitzgibbons, also the girlfriend of St George Illawarra lock and Origin forward Trent Merrin, joined a cavalcade of Australians who had powered through to the semi-finals of one of the epic events on the professional tour.
After a good start to the event she had won twice, Fitzgibbons had to make a late charge after slipping behind Hawaiian Carissa Moore, the reigning world champion, on wave scores.
Fitzgibbons did make a valiant attempt with just seconds remaining but her four-point wave failed by just half a point on the total score to give her victory and she was edged out of the finals by defending Bells champion Moore, 11.10 to 10.53.
Australian surfers had dominated by having three Aussie women and three Aussie men advance to the semi-finals, with world No. 2 Tyler Wright defeating former world champion Stephanie Gilmore in an all-Australian semi-final.
Moore beat Wright in the final.
The big swell fired up Sydney's surfing hot-spots from early in the week, with bodyboarders such as Sutherland Shire's Andrew Lester and Alex Leon putting on a show in the sweet barrels of Cronulla's famous Shark Island reef break.
They were joined by the likes of Hawaiian and French champions Jeff Hubbard and Pierre Louis Costes, as word filtered through that the annual Shark Island Bodyboard Challenge could be staged as early as next week.
"Our six month window period starts from next Thursday [May 1]," said Leon, the tournament organiser. "But as the forecast is really good, more of the stars of the world [bodyboard] tour are now arriving and we could have a contest very soon."
