I’m curious because I’m going there for two weeks and I’ll be bringing a minigun for my friend that is putting me up and putting up with me. I know very little about the waves there except what I’ve seen on the WQS contest streams of bells. I guess that it gets plenty of wind and there is quite a variety of spots. I imagine the boards would be the same as in Hawaii too…???
No. Not as much power as Hawaii. In fact probably not even close.
The footage from Bells is fairly misleading as to what the nearby breaks are like; there’s two reasons they run the Rip Curl Pro at Bells:
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Bells breaks right in front of a natural amphitheater; heaps of room for spectators and the camera crews to get a great view of the action from the beach and, to a lesser extent the cliff-top.
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More importantly though, Bells is one of the very few places that can handle almost any size swell that may turn up around Easter time without closing out (if a large, clean swell turns up it’s more often around Easter).
In other words, it’s the most reliable spot to hold a contest in any conditions, even though it may not necessarily be the best on any given day. But on a properly big day at Bells most other places are closing out.
When are you likely to be there? You may get lucky; recently there’s been a bit of swell and some unseasonable offshores.
Either way, expect to freeze your butt off; typically cold, windy, onshore and miserable at this time of the year and even more so the further it gets into winter. More size than summer on average, but usually ugly; lots of windchop and multiple swells heading in different directions that interfere with each other (i.e. choppy, bumpy waves). It terms of wave-size encountered it could be anywhere from 1 foot faces to 12 foot faces (I don’t go in for “Hawaiian” wave measurement - when I say a wave is 6 foot, that’s how tall the wave face is, peak to trough). So a minigun would be an appropriate single-board quiver for travelling, but a step-down that is good in smaller, blown-out chop would be a good idea if you can take two for yourself - ask your host though for the finer details of what to bring; they may have specific breaks in mind. Also, you’ll be needing at least a 4/3 steamer, neoprene hood and booties. Gloves wouldn’t be a bad idea too as the water is cooling down fast.
Incidentally, where are you coming from? And why on earth are you going to Victoria when you could be going to Indonesia instead? Warm water, t-shirt weather, great waves, exotic culture, tropical locations, cheap consumer goods and you can eat and drink like a king for peanuts. Even without the free accomodation it’d still likely be way cheaper; Australia has one of the highest costs of living on earth (e.g. petrol/gasoline is running around $USD 4.40/gallon in Australia right now), it’s freezing cold and the culture is pretty much the same as you’d find in North America or Europe. That’s like knocking back a date with an exotic supermodel who’s happy with being taken out to McDonalds for a Happy Meal, so that you can instead go out with a girl that’s no better looking than the girl you’re currently dating and demands that you take her to a 3 Michelin star restaurant.
Anyway, good luck & have fun. At least the beer’s good…
… (mind you, the Bintangs in Indo are good too and much cheaper!).
Cheers.
Thanks for the lengthy write up. To answer your questions I’m a seppo who lives in Japan formerlly lived in Hawaii and am visiting one of my best friends i’ve ever had who just moved to Torquay. I stayed in Lennox last year and fell in love with meat pies and overhead point breaks. So with all considered I’m not ashamed to ride my scooter to my fat girlfriend’s house because both are fun to ride. I’ll be bringing a 6’4 HPSB and a 7’3 minigun for myself. I’m shaping a 6’6 minigun for my friend and am wondering what the standard bottom contours are in Vic. By the sounds of it I should give it a roll to single to double to flat off the tail. Or am I completly wrong?
it’s a LOT colder here , ben .
a LOT .
Bump in the faces. Lots of wind , all year round here , being the southern ocean / bass strait .
mate , if you want to check out my ‘winter’ thread here , and of course my blog below , and my facebook page , maybe ? … the recent photos , with the dark looking water , will give you an idea …
Dear Sir…,
good answer; nothing wrong with going to spend some time with one of your best mates 
Nope, what you’re bringing for yourself sounds bang on the money (assuming you’re around average height and weight).
The 6’6 sounds possibly a little short for a minigun, but for all I know your friend is not that big/heavy either.
I think you’re on the right track regarding the contours; the single to double to flat off the tail is fairly standard local fast HPSB features and the hull in the nose will help with the chop/bumpy faces without being too draggy. If it was me though, seeing as it’s intended as a minigun I’d probably consider using a little spine through the double to make it a little more “vee-ish” - a long-time local Torquay shaper I know commonly uses vee through the tail of his boards and as a minigun you’d expect it’d be ridden in waves with enough juice in them for a vee to get up and boogie. If your friend is expecting to encounter sizeable chop on his mini-gun I might even consider replacing the hull in the nose with a little vee. E.g. about 200 yards down the beach from Bells is a better break (although it can’t handle the size that Bells can) called Winki Pop; in fact it’s probably the highest regarded break in all of Victoria (and accordingly gets insanely overcrowded). Rode it a few weeks back at a fairly large size (7-12 foot faces - i.e. getting up to minigun size waves). It’s a fast wave and my board (vee in the nose, flat through the middle and vee out the back) kept up with it splendidly.
Be warned though; like I said, Winki gets seriously crowded with quite a few pro’s and pro-level locals riding it, and tensions can run high, so you need to know what you’re doing out there to avoid being given a hard time. Mind you, you’ve lived in Hawaii, so if you could hold your own in Hawaiian conditions, you’ll probably be fine. Do expect to get dropped in on though. No matter who you are, that’s just the way Winki is
A final note of caution; as far as my tips on bottom contours go I’m only an armchair expert at the moment (am getting ready to shape my first board, so I haven’t had the opportunity (yet… ) to play with a whole bunch of boards with different bottom contours in the local minigun conditions that an experienced shaper would have). If I can get the time today I’ll try giving someone a call who does have that experience and get back to you on that.
Cheers!
…and get a board from Josh Dowling while you are there…
Wait til he’s finished mine first though 
I’m used to the wind and bumps in the faces. In fact Johnny said It’s quite similar to some of the spots i used to surf at. The cold however is something that I’ll never learn to enjoy no matter how used I get to it. The water where I am now gets down to 10 degrees C so I think I have the proper wetsuit gear to bring over.
He makes beautiful boards. One day…One day!
hi again Ben !
if you want to message me your email , I will send you some stuff which might be helpful for your stay …[not putting it publicly here ] …
cheers
ben
p.s. - I reckon you’ll enjoy winki , should suit your insane cutback eh ? 
I surf my Vicco boards in Hawaii and they have gone well at Backyards, Hulletts, Cannons, Lighthouse and a few other breaks I can’t remember on various islands. Less well at Sunset, but that may have just been me - couldn’t get a handle on that wave!
Good, even rocker; slight concave, little vee inside the concave; good tail flip.
Plenty waves around the west coast, especially if you travel a couple hours south (west). Pack something in the 8’ range if you want to tackle Easter Reef. http://www.surfline.com/surfdata/report_breakdata.cfm?id=6485&sef=true
Or get a boat and surf some south sea perfection in icy water at Corsair.
Get a chicken vest (hooded wetsuit vest) - worth a couple degrees warmth for little extra weight.
Don’t worry, it’s not bad once you are in the water. It’s the pre-surf nekkid in the car park wind and rain that’l do it!
hi again , ‘sirW.A.L.’ !
DO you have a DATE that you will be in melbourne city ? Then , possibly RDM , CassS , and you and I can catch up ? [and any other Viccos "sways ‘’ guys around here , who may be free on the day ??]
Don’t know if you are a fan , but … the David Bowie exhibition is in town , till October [ … and , it’s only doing FOUR places in the world ?!]
plus ,
Zac surfboards , in Thornbury [ a Melbourne suburb] , may be worth a trip to , it apparently had ’ PlusOne Shaper ’ [remember HIM ??] assymetrical boards there , RDM informed me …
cheers mate !
Ben
Hi Ben, I cant tell you what day I’ll be in Melbourne yet. I’ll be able to tell you a few day prior I hope.
cheers Ben !
Stay in touch eh !
I went to that Zac surfboards place once , and they have got some interesting old boards !
these people must be trying to keep you away from their goods - I traveled through victoria one july/august and it was amazing. i surfed so many empty amazing waves and passed by even more…these are places you can see from the main highway…have no idea why everyone only surfs bells & winki …guess they are afraid of driving? 4/3 and booties should be fine probably wont need a hood or gloves unless it is the coldest morning of the year. waves pack as much punch as similar rolly / down the line waves in hawaii
im jealous - have fun!!!
yep , as I said to ben , a book was written and the author received death threats. kinda funny when you consider how cold , isolated , sharky and often adverse the weather can be here , but the hardcore ones perservere and score , I guess …
I’ve been here for 6 days and have 8 more to go. The first couple of days were quite fun despite my lack of sleep on the red eye. Paddled out to two foot Bells before sun up and caught two waves before the crotch leak in my old wetsuit sent me in. The waves were bretty bad anyway but the view of the sunrise was spectacular which made it well worth it. Went to the ripcurl store after that and picked up a brand new flashbomb and then the quicksilver store and got a vest/hood for bodysurfing. My second wetsuit with fur on the inside and it actually fits me well. Later that afternoon we went up the coast a little bit and got some head high plus clean little reef/beach break that had beautiful lines and gave me a lot of good turns and a little cover up as well. I surfed there the next two days and it delivered some chest to shoulder high rippable waves as well. Went to the south coast of Vic on the Great Ocean Road and saw some spectacular views of what I was told is Wayne Lynch’s stomping grounds. Went to Lorne, “Lawn” to a Seppo like me, and found a clean but tiny place and swam out to the point and bodysurfed a little bit to cope with these onshores. I hope they change before I leave.
good on ya , Ben !
thanks for the update
I couldn’t make melbourne today , unfortunately , but if you’re there a few days [?] , hopefully we might be able to catch up eh ?
hope you’re having fun !
cheers
Ben2
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