Bell awaits its winner as swell looms to end event

THE Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach is building momentum towards its conclusion this week after a tricky run of swell at the opening of the event window.

Local Torquay hopes Xavier Huxtable and Harry Mann surfed well against the best surfers in the world to narrowly miss progressing to round three.

Owen Wright won the Elimination Round over Jack Freestone and Mann, in a heat that saw no shortage of excitement with a heat pause after something was spotted in the line-up, which turned out to be a large plume of seaweed.

“Jack (Freestone) and I saw a big shadow and started to paddle in not knowing what it could be,” Wright said.

“Jack was waving at the skis and they came over to us and we jumped on the back and went to see what it was. We got over to the shadow and it turns out it was a massive clump of seaweed but it was good that we took the precaution and the safety protocols worked well.”

On the women’s side of the competition, Victorian hope Nikki Van Dijk won her opening round heat to progress to round three.

In her 10th year of competing at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach (four years as a wildcard), the Phillip Islander hopes to ring the Bell for not only her first time but also as the first Victorian to do so since Gail Couper did in 1976.

Van Dijk took a step in the right direction, taking down World Title hopeful Lakey Peterson (USA) and Paige Hareb (NZL) in the opening heat of Round 1.

“I was really trying to control that heat at the end,” Van Dijk said.

“I made a bit of a mistake at the end taking an average wave, which could have left the door open for the others but it was all good in the end. Winning this opening round is so important as it gives you a good seed in Round 3, but there are no easy heats on the CT so can’t think too much like that. That keeps it exciting and I’m loving the new format. My first CT was this event years ago and the format was like this so it feels familiar which is good.”

Following a lay day on Tuesday, conditions were expected to improve from Wednesday afternoon, with the best of the swell to arrive on Friday and Saturday. Depending on how quickly competition gets under way again, the winners could ring the Bell on either day.

Check WorldSurfLeague.com for the latest competition updates.