My mate Marty lives at Jan Juc and surfs all the reefs between Torquay and Bells. I had a beer with him the other night and he was laughing as he told me how many great waves he's had lately – he's never had as many waves during Easter as he has this year. And he's not even been surfing Bells or Winki! I dunno where Marty surfed today but the contest organisers, the remaining surfers, and even us spectators, were laughing as Bells and Winki were once again smoking. The air temp was only 8 degrees, though such things barely matter when it's 4'-6' and the lines are ruler sharp under an offshore NW'er. The organisers had to finish four heats from round two so Taj and Bottle Thompson got proceedings going around 8am. The hooter sounded and ACDC's Hell's Bells fired up on the sound system, however it wasn't till Angus had finished his guitar solo that the first wave was ridden. Despite the slow start Taj got busy catching waves, but he was taking his moves straight from the skatepark and the offshore wind wasn't doing him any favours. Near the end of the heat he started playing it straight, but by then it was all too late. Bottle got away and sealed the deal with an 8.67 late in the heat. Timmy Reyes has been blazing over at Winkipop all week, however he didn't look comfortable at Bells, playing soft off the top and continually cutting back to the source. He swapped boards halfway through the heat, and then made a fundamental priority error paddling for a wave he missed. On the other side of the ledger Kieren Perrow surfed smart and clinically. He stepped it up with a tidy high-line barrel mid-heat that netted 9.23 points and put Reyes in comboland. Perrow then dotted the 'i' with a victory lap special at the end of the heat. He was solid, if not radical. By the third heat of the day the offshore had really kicked in hard, blowing huge plumes of spray off the waves and exagerrating any errors off the top; even the slightest rail bog was enough to stop momentum, and floaters became even riskier. You may as well have hoisted a spinnaker, such was the way surfers were getting blown off the back. I thought Ace Buchan was gonna be all over Dingo Morrisson in their match-up. Goofy's can have an advantage in strong offshore conditions cause they do toe-side turns off the top and reef the board back onto the face. Didn't work for Ace though. Dingo kept his turns below the lip, while still keeping it loose...and he got the scores. Ace simply struggled. There was a bit of role reversal going on out there too. Dingo, knowing he was in command, controlled the rest of the heat via smart tactics. His newly adopted erudite act continued into his winners speech where he was articulate and expressive. Didn't once drop the f-bomb. In the first heat of round three CJ Hobgood took down Taylor Knox by two points. Afterward CJ said his secret in these conditions was “cutting the top turns short”, and compared it to Sunset Beach, such were the adjustments that had to be made off the top. Kai Otton jagged the biggest wave of the day immediately after the hooter sounded in his heat against Parko. Even though it was only round three Otton was always gonna have to play his A game if he was gonna beat Parko, and he got off to a great start. However, just like in round two, Parko was again on song, and each turn he laid down was note perfect. The strong wind that played havoc with the other competitors didn't bother him. It was a testament to the accuracy with which Parko surfs; the strong wind was only a problem if surfers made errors, and Parko made none. It wasn't the strong wind that beat Bobby Martinez in his heat against Mick Fanning. And it wasn't even Mick that beat him - Bobby just didn't put himself in the contest. He's made his dislike for Bells public in the past and in doing so he might've beaten himself. He finished with a two-wave total of 3.43. Mick scored 14.26. Today, just like Tuesday, I got the urge to head to Winki to nab a few waves for myself. The wind looked a lot better round there, and I was getting itchy watching 5' sets rounding the Button with a handful of lucky punters taking the fast lane to Lowers. I was too late though. Before I could jump contest director Damien Hardman made the call to move the comp to Winki and I'd missed my opportunity. Jordy rode the first wave in his heat against Owen Wright and immediately vindicated Hardman's decision to move the comp. He destroyed a wave for an 8.67 and didn't do a single cutback. Owen pushed it vertically on his first wave for 7.17 and it was clear the judges had greater expectations from the surfers on the Winki walls. While Bells is all about connecting the dots Winki is more of an open canvas. Squeezing through the sections can still be a fine line, but surfers can at least vary their turns and also surf more powerfully. Unfortunately, for the second half of Jordy and Owen's heat neither had any canvas to paint on as the  ocean inexpicably went flat. Owen got stranded on low scores and Jordy progressed Everyone loves a local boy. Well, at least other locals do. And all the Torquay locals love Adam Robertson....even though he comes from Portland. Anyway, he was up against Tom Whitaker and the locals all roared as he raced down the Winki line hacking, gouging, and even throwing out a stylish layback at the end of an eight point wave. Whitaker didn't help his cause by falling on two potential scorers. In the end the local boy got up. Sometimes exciting heats come when you least expect them - take Kekoa Bacalso's win over Drew Courtney for example. Both of them rookie's who don't carry much gravity in the pro surf ranks. But both duked it out in a fair dinkum slug-fest. Kekoa was banking off the bottom and using the wall - and sometimes the breaking lip – like a Nascar berm to throw his weight into. Often exiting the moves with far more speed than he entered. Courtney got a good first wave but couldn't complete a second wave. That's not to say he surfed bad – he threw everything at the waves, but came unstuck on big moves. In contrast Bottle Thompson and Kieren Perrow's match-up was a bit of a comedown. Each was surfing their second heat of the day which might explain why it was so scrappy. Both surfers come-a-gutser at crucial times and failed to build any pressure. Perrow stuck a few waves at the end which was enough to get him by. I missed the last heat of the day which was Fred Patacchia versus Dingo Morrisson. Freddy P apparently stitched up the dingo and racked up the highest heat total of the day. The call for Friday is for more perfect waves - 6'-8' with a straight NW'er. Anyone who has a surf around Torquay tomorrow will be laughing.// STUART NETTLE