The 56th installment of the longest running professional surfing contest on the planet, the 2017 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach did not disappoint. The waves were pumping, the beach was packed, and all the competitors brought their A-game. Well, most of them anyway… Kelly Slater and Gabriel Medina were both knocked out in Round 3. But enough with the upsets, let’s get into some of the sick surfing from this year at Bells!
First up we’ve got the only perfect score from Round 1, nailed by the Brazilian aerial master Felipe Toledo. He drops into a smaller inside wave and unleashes on it with precision and style, everything timed to perfection. In this heat he scored a massive 19.70 over Conner Coffin and Bede Durbidge…
That insane 10 point ride was just the start of his quest at Bells, which took him all the way to the quarterfinals. He was finally sent packing by Ezekiel Lau, who achieved his best ever result on the World Tour, joint 3rd with John John Florence. As for Florence, he boosted a huge alley oop in a Round 4 heat against Mick Fanning and Sebastien Zietz, earning a massive 9.97, so check it out…
In a huge surprise, John John Florence ended up being knocked out by Caio Ibelli, in a down to the buzzer heat that Florence looked set to win. Ibelli sneaked in a last wave to beat Florence’s combination score of 17.43 by just 0.20 of a point. In solid 6 to 8 foot waves and with the high pushing high up, finals day saw surfers riding waves right into the shorey, as you can see in this next clip…
The final saw tour veteran Jordy Smith matched up against last year’s rookie Caio Ibelli, and those guys went head to head, blow for blow. It’s widely known that Jordy excels in righthand point break setups like Bells, but Ibelli was not giving up without a fight. After ten years competing at Bells, Jordy was putting everything on the line, even claiming one wave with a ringing the trophy bell celebration!
With that killer 9.77 wave Jordy sealed the deal, and soon after he was chaired up the beach to the stairs and it was up to the top to talk with Barton Lynch. When he got there this is what he had to say, “I can’t even believe it, second last year and now this, it’s amazing. I was stoked to have made it into Round 4 and then every heat after that was a bonus. I tried to take it easy and not take things too seriously, as you may have been able to tell from some of my claims in the final. This is an absolute dream come true. I’ve been working on winning this event for 10 years now and to get it today is incredible.”
So Jordy propels to joint second in the rankings with Owen Wright and Florence keeps hold of the yellow jersey for now, next stop Rio de Janeiro!
Featured image: @surfingvictoria via Instagram