Im interested in learning more about the sort of legendary/iconic status of Bells. It seems as if it is held like one of the ‘jewels’ of the triple crown for Oz and also highly regarded among most of the contestants, although some gripe that its not a performance wave and can be somewhat full. I know some great battles have gone down at Bells- Curren/Occy etc. I also seem to remember a lot of years where it had bad wind and bumpy waves. What all has gone down that makes Bells held with such reverence? Maybe it is just one of those things that you just can’t put into words. With the contest going on I was curious to dig up some history on the place, which I didn’t find much of. Help a septic tank yank out. And to my fellow countrymen- lets keep Bodhi and the 50 year storm rhetoric to a minimum!
If anyone is interested, Google maps has quite a good shot of the reef through really clear water by the way.
Well sunset isn’t that high performance of a wave similar in that it can be really fat and wonky. Bells has history, Winkipop is really the better wave imho. If it stays as flat as it is I will be interested to see where they actually run it. I have heard Phillips Island is awesome, I would like to see them run more contest in excellent beach breaks/reefs. Don’t get me wrong I would love to surf Snappers and J-Bay, but most of the highest performance surfing is more suited to the shorter, punchier, racier waves.
My personal favorite bells was Simon’s unveiling of the thruster. We used to watch movies in theaters then, so it was some time before we could actually see certain things in action. Simon carving those huge faces on what we all thought was a mini surfboard on his 6’6’’ thruster left most of us with our jaws agape.
The three fins achieved yaw/roll coupling with speed (if you look closely only two were ever working) that allowed vertical climb and recovery.
Simon’s creation (invention) might just be centuries’ durable.
Singles, trwins, quads and any other combination you may think of don’t quite match what Simon created - they may track or release - but the simplicity of the same size three fins is deceiving - relative to performance.
The thruster setup combined with the concave bottom is rewriting speed and turn all over again!
It was appropiate that a difficult, tilting face like Bells could be mastered with the speed/flow of the thruster.
I read some where that after his break down on the south coast MP watched Simon surf Dee Why point on the Thruster after which we returned to QLD to never surf again. Must have been some good surfing.
Sorry for hexing the contest. Off to a horrible start so far with four lay days and horrible forecast 5 days out. I guess they ran the girls in total crap surf and Stephanie Gilmore took the win. Now there is talk about moving it. Wonder if Bells is going to go the way of Mundaka?
At size Bells seems as though you need a semi-gun from the beach, but once out there you feel over gunned. It’s a bit hard to read and tricky to get far enough back on your bottom turn to get up to smack the lip where it’s pitching, so the wave can feel fat until the shorey. It’s hard to take off really deep (at Rincon, where the wave stands up better) and still make it though the bowl, so mosty contestants stick with the bowl. Here’s some info about the breaks http://www.bellsbeachaustralia.com/location.html
The Bell’s story is linked to it being the oldest continuously running (standup) pro contest in Australia (the world?) (I think the Phillip Island Kneeboard Classic is the oldest overall, at around 29 years), and because Bells was the first Surfing Recreation Reserve. Car park, easy access, low danger (sit wide of the peak in safe deep water) and consistency all contribute to its popularity, but in my mind it’s the commercial interests that drive its ‘legendary’ status
My friend thought that since bells was so soft he would take out his 6’0" step up when it was 15ft instead of his 6’3" semi-gun. Got his ass handed to him. the wave has power. it is just really long and not that verticle.
Bells and Winki are mythical beaches that never have any waves. Nobody should ever bother travelling to Vicco to surf there, and after this easter, they’ll cancel all future surf contests here…with any luck!
Gotta agree. The addition of concave to Simon’s three has obviously provided the best combination yet thought of. The new talent is taking everything into another realm … yet again.
Besides that historic year that Simon Anderson unveiled his thruster design, there was another year, I think it was 1965 when it was more of an Australian Championship thing, where it was huge, like 15-18 ft. The best Australians of the day were there, I think Robert Conelly won it. I vaguely remember pics from that contest from some old mags I had laying around.
