Big eliminations swept through the early rounds of the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach competition, stop number two on the World Surf League Championship Tour.
The Bells Beach contest started in good waves on Good Friday and has had solid waves every day over the Easter weekend.
Cronulla’s Connor O’Leary, who started the season with a 17th place at the Gold Coast’s Quiksilver Pro, needed a result to help his world title aspirations. But waves didn't go his way and he went out early placing second in his first round heat and eventually going down to Ezekiel Lau 10 to 11.43 in the second round to finish 25th.
The final Australian tour event at Margaret River runs from April 11 to 22 and O’Leary now really needs a result and will have to start seriously thinking about re-qualifying on the WQS – something he didn't have to do last year after some good early results.
In the last event of his competitive career, three-time WSL champion and four-time event winner Mick Fanning is the crowd favorite to ring the Bell for one last time.
"It's so awesome to have so much support down here at Bells and to have my family and friends around is great,” said Fanning.
The drama continued in the women’s event with an early loss by 2017 world title contender Sally Fitzgibbons and now only Mick Fanning (AUS), Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), and Gabriel Medina (BRA) represent the class of elite World Champions heading into the Final Series of the iconic Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach event .
Bells has been called OFF for the day with improved conditions projected for an exciting Finals Day tomorrow.
Fitzgibbons has never fallen below fifth place in her professional surfing career. Her loss at Bells Beach marked the two-time event winner’s first early elimination ahead of the final series in nine years.
Its not Bells conditions here at Cronulla where we have had a week of small but clean waves on offer and the banks are as good as you could hope for.
Tuesdays southerly has kicked the swell to a half decent size up the beach but Swellnet predicts the onshore winds won't do much to help our waves and this morning it was pretty dribbly on the low tide.
The best new swell source for the coming week is going to come off Tropical Cyclone Josie, which formed south-west of Fiji over the weekend.
The resulting swell will be much better aimed towards SE Qld, but we’ll see a decent spread of 3/4 ft E/NE groundswell push down the east coast over a couple of phases between Thursday and Sunday.
I took todays pics at Wanda and the Alley and theWinds should be should be mainly light and variable with afternoon sea breezes.
After Margarets the weird world tour goes to the Founders’ Cup of Surfing presented by Michelob beer and it will run May 5 - 6, 2018, making history as the first public event at the world-famous Surf Ranch facility in Lemoore, California and the iconic organizing members of professional surfing, after which the Founders’ Cup is named, are weighing in on the event.
The WSL is proud to celebrate the following seven individuals as key founders of the sport ahead of this May’s event:
Fred Hemmings (HAW): 1968 World Champion, IPS Co-Founder
Randy Rarick (HAW): IPS Co-Founder, Triple Crown of Surfing Co-Founder
Peter Townend (AUS): 1976 World Champion, Founding Member of APSA
Shaun Tomson (ZAF): 1977 World Champion
Wayne Bartholomew (AUS): 1978 World Champion, Dream Tour Architect
Mark Richards (AUS): Four-Time World Champion (1979 - 1982)
Ian Cairns (AUS): Co-Founder APSA, Smirnoff and Duke Winner, ASP Architect
It is a team event and the contest can be held in 2 days because the Surf Ranch facility, which was revealed online to the public in December 2015, boasts the best man-made wave in history - a 700-yard, high-performance, bi-directional wave featuring barrel sections and maneuver sections.
They can also sell entry tickets-$100 a day or $155 for the weekend-i would opt for the $500 VIP free beer ticket myself-Go Australia !
AUSTRALIA TEAM:
Captain: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
Mick Fanning (AUS)
Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Julian Wilson (AUS)
Tyler Wright (AUS)