50-Year Storm rides the swell at Bells

THE 50-Year Storm Invitational has finally landed a wave, with participants paddling out on Monday this week to take on the famous Bells Beach break in the event’s fifth year.

The conditions were “storm surf” in the triple overhead size (8-10 feet and above) waves at the Bells bowl.

The field featured 30 publicly-voted local surfers, both male and female, aged between 16 and 56, riding boards between six feet and nine feet long.

There were three heats of 10 surfers, each judged on their best single wave with a score out of 100 points.

Held in memory of former world junior surfing champion Shaun Brooks, the event is not so much about crowning a winner, but about the coming together of a community all in the name of raising awareness towards mental health issues.

Tim Stevenson took out the best surfer award despite having no sleep after working all night.

“This is such a special event and I feel honoured to win this event today,” he said.

“It was really fun, it was a storm and the reason behind the event is no joke.”

Angela Ball won the Johnny Utah Award (a nod to Point Break, the film that inspired the event’s title) with a late takeoff and then surfed all the way to the Winki Pop Button after taking some heavy wipeouts earlier in her heat.

The oldest competitor, 56-year-old Jeff Sweeney, surfed what was considered to be the biggest wave of the day.

Craig “Boots” Garrard was an early leader in the third heat with a couple of big rides.

“The first one for my best friend Simon Brownbill, who’s no longer with us; and my second wave was for my old mate Shaun Brooks,” he said.

He said he paddled out to the break with half a dozen of his childhood friends.

“We were walking together, and paddled out from Jarosite, just looking after each other – it’s a long way out.”

Local real estate agent Shaun O’Callaghan was also part of the third heat.

“It was pretty amazing, just surfing with mates,” he said.

“And it was challenging and windy, hard work, but it was really fun.

“I got one good wave in an hour, and I’m stoked, because that was the goal – I spoke to a couple of guys in the heat before and they didn’t really get many waves, so I thought ‘I’ve got to get one’.

“It’s good to kick off the event at a decent size, because it could have easily been half as big.”