The Beach Boys sang about Aruba, Montego and Key Largo. If they had visited the Southern parts of Victoria where the shore meets the sea, it’s certain at least a few of the beaches which dot the almost 2000 kilometres of coastline would have made it into the song.
The Victorian coastline, which fronts the Southern Ocean, Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea is ever changing due to weather, wind, waves and tides. It’s a dramatic backdrop for some of the most popular surf beaches in Australia — soft sand and light breezes amidst a variable background of wetlands, heathland, sheer cliffs and rocky shores.
About two hours from Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road you will find Bells Beach, an iconic beach known for its consistently great rolling sets. Named after the family that took up the first pastoral run thereabouts in the 1840s Bells provides waves of a quality which leave seasoned surfers in awe and many others scrambling to master the swells of up to six metres.
It is claimed the surfing potential of the site was first recognised in 1949 by Vic Tantau, Peter Troy and Owen Yateman. Traversing the cliffs to get to the beach proved to be difficult, but eventually enterprising surfer and Olympic wrestler Joe Sweeney hired a bulldozer, cleared a road along Bells cliff and charged one pound per surfer for access to recover his expenses. This path is now part of the Torquay to Anglesea walking track.
Since then, Bells Beach has been host to several surfing contests, including the ten day Easter Surfing Festival, first held in 1962. This makes it the longest-running professional surfing event in Australia and the world and one of Victoria's six "Hallmark International Sporting Events".
In 1975, the event morphed into the Rip Curl Pro Surf and Music Festival, which now forms part of the professional tour of the top 44 male surfers chasing the world championship title. The contest is one of the most prestigious surfing events in the world with winners such as Australian Trent Munro getting a chance to ring the Rip Curl Bell Trophy.
Did you know?
- To the north-east of Bells are beaches known to local surfers as 'Winkipop', 'Boobs' and 'Steps'. To the south-west is an 'optional dress beach'.
- It is the swells from the Southern Ocean, which slow down and steepen over the reef-strewn shallows that creates the outstanding surf.
- The RipCurl Pro prize money was for many years rather low by world standards. This changed in the 1990s when the importance of the event and Bells Beach was recognised by an Act of Parliament that declared the site a recreation reserve.
- In the year 2000 Bells Beach was listed as a site of historical significance by the Victorian branch of the National Trust.
Rip Curl Pro
3-13 April 2007
Bells Beach Foreshore
Bells Beach Rd , Bells Beach VIC 3228
Web: www.surfingaustralia.com
