Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach 2025: Day 3

Small to medium-sized Winkipop with fair winds and 'just enough' waves turns out to be one of the standout venues to hold pro surfing in and today was no different. Best competition day of the year so far for mine, and I'd be keen to hear any counter-arguments if you've got them.

Most sets came in groups of two or three waves enabling surfers to trade-off in wave for wave encounters. Lots of heats decided on the final exchanges, some of which could have gone either way but the judging was coherent and consistent through the day.

Coaches earned their clip on the ticket today. Coach killing moments abounded - none more heinous than in the opening heat of the day between Molly Picklum and Luana Silva. Pickles slaughtered a bomb in the opening minute with three confident hammers for a 7.67. The heat was hers to control from there. Inexplicably she let a great back-up two-turn wave go to Luana. Fell on a set and managed to let Luana in on the next two best waves to lose the heat. It was a hapless performance from Pickles.

Luana (WSL/Sloane)

All the new schoolers faded out. The shine has really come off the Erin Brooks hype train. After getting shacked off her nut at Snapper last year to win the CS event and smashing everybody to irrelevance at Cloudbreak she's come on tour this year with an expectation of a rookie season world title. But in the tour waves to date, she hasn't looked that good. Style is too busy and stiff, turns look too short and forced. Her loss today to Isabella Nichols was a classic example.

She was just out-surfed by an opponent making more sense of the canvas - bigger turns, better reads.

Erin (WSL/Sloane)

The other teenage sensation to fold was current World Champ and defending Bells title holder Caity Simmers. It'll sound a little weird to say it, especially if you look at the rankings and results, but Simmers is in a minor form slump. Couldn't quite convert any of her Finals Day waves at Punta Roca into scores and after two heats at Bells the best she could do was a mid-6.

Hers isn't the only form slump. Caz Marks was bundled out with a pair of 5's. Nothing over 5's in El Salvador. Incredibly she won Portugal despite her best heat only featuring a pair of 6's. Her single best ride this year was way back in Round 1 at Pipe where she scored a 7. This is not a surfer producing excellent surfing, or even anything like it, according to the judging scale. Louie Egan is not one to panic but there must be a point where a coach has to deliver some uncomfortable truths.

Anyway, to rewind a bit, the story of Simmers' loss, of course, is not that she lost but that Sally Fitzgibbon won. Immediate mainstream media story with the plucky veteran all over every media channel. It was a good heat, very well surfed. Simmers did not compete for the inside at the start of the heat so 34-year old Sal was happy to assume control, which she did. A long lull ensued. The re-start siren rang out. Sal kicked things off with a 5. Simmer answered back with a 5.5 and it looked like the “beautiful game” which is how Sal described the heat was going to go against her. Sal backed her 5 up with another 5 and with the scoreboard pressure on her, Simmers crumbled. Sal then iced the heat with a well-surfed set for a 7.33.

Sally (WSL/Sloane)

The high point for mine was a non-made air-  which I interpreted as a punch in the face to all the haters out there. As previously stated, with the expansion of the women's tour next year primarily coming from this year's tour, Sally is almost certainly going to suit up again for next year's CT. Still a long, long way from challenging Slater's longevity and if Steph comes back she won't be the oldest on tour.  A coming quarter-final against Brisa will hold no fear for Sal and with all the kids now gone, she's a very good chance to go all the way to a third bell.

Simmers out. Houshmand out, so both Bells defending champs gone. Houshmand at the hands of exiled final fiver Morgan Ciblic. 19th on the CS last year, 16th the year before that, 12th in '22, yet 5th on the CT in 2021. Surely there has to be more to the CT career of Morgan Ciblic than that, unless we believe that final five finish was a complete aberration and smoking the current Bells champ means nothing?

Morgan v Fioravanti in the Round of 16 could be the heat of the round, assuming this battler from Newcastle via Yamba brings some dog to the fight against a pro who has been given everything since he was a kid.

Leo's been given everything, and he's made the absolute most of it. In the final heat of the day, Leo went toe to toe with Al Jnr in an absolute classic that you could watch ten times and see a different winner every viewing. Big airs had been winning clutch heats and Al repeated the dose. The final exchange determined the winner after the lead swapped hands after almost every wave. Cool as a cucumber Leo sat there for almost ten minutes resigned, he said later in the presser, to having his Bells moment taken from him for another year, before the set arrived and he ripped it to pieces with seamless top to bottom power gouges and lip hits.

Al jnr. (WSL/Sloane)

Some losses will not be washed off easily. Ryan Callinan went down to a dominant showing from Ethan Ewing who looks ready to reprise the '23 victory. There's a clear technique advantage for Ewing which shows most clearly at running Winkipop. He generates effortless speed with movement primarily focussed from the hips down through the knees and ankles and then approaches the lip with both arms high which allows him to hit and drift, drop the back arm, or lay both arms down into the power move. No-one else can change up the angle of the attack so intuitively and vary the turn like Ewing in running rights. As we will also see at Burleigh.

The loss means more for Callinan, putting him way down at 31st and with a new baby due, only a couple more chances to save his career. I'm not a man of many beliefs, but one of them is that we haven't seen enough of Ryan Callinan. And I don't mean slogging it out in shitty beachies on the Changa. If we can get this god of pro surfing, the one so freely invoked in post-heat interviews, to intervene on our behalf, I would be eternally grateful. R'Cal needs a miracle.

Liam O'Brien and Crosby Colapinto likewise find themselves on the wrong side of the relegation line after close losses where they both ripped but got overrun by superior opponents. Lobby by a very classy showing from Kanoa Igarashi and Croz from a wonderful hail mary air from Joel Vaughan.

Joel (WSL/Sloane)

The rookies aren't scared to throw airs at veteran competitors who have had the risk bred out of them by the game. Marco Mignot looked to have the best of Connor O'Leary with a reckless tail-high punt attack until O'Leary found a runner on the buzzer which he brutalised for the winning score. Connor is sitting at 15th, with plenty of space between him and oblivion and no real pressure to decide whether he is a true mid-ranger or a potential final fiver.

It was a good day for members of the Dog Pound, apart from the Callinan loss. Connor is through and Gabby Bryan now wears the yellow jersey following the days' most dominant display. She's always been in the slipstream of the hyped kids and now finds herself the form surfer with a power attack that no-one else can get close to. Gabby Bryan and Issy Nichols should be a great heat.

Gabby (WSL/Miers)

Only half of the men's Round of 32 completed today. The back eight heats have potential for major upsets. You'd give Xavier Huxtable a red hot chance to defeat Italo Ferriera and Georgie Pittar has the arsenal and the confidence to take down Filipe Toledo who's year has spluttered on and off.

Can the WSL do what they haven't yet done this year: follow up a good day with another good day?

//STEVE SHEARER

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Women’s Round of 16 Results: 
HEAT 1: Luana Silva (BRA) 13.66 DEF. Molly Picklum (AUS) 12.64
HEAT 2: Lakey Peterson (USA) 13.33 DEF. Sawyer Lindblad (USA) 9.67
HEAT 3: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 12.73 DEF. Caitlin Simmers (USA) 10.10
HEAT 4: Brisa Hennessy (CRC) 9.77 DEF. Bella Kenworthy (USA) 9.33
HEAT 5: Gabriela Bryan (HAW) 15.00 DEF. Nadia Erostarbe (EUK) 10.03
HEAT 6: Isabella Nichols (AUS) 13.67 DEF. Erin Brooks (CAN) 10.03
HEAT 7: Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW) 11.17 DEF. Caroline Marks (USA) 9.47
HEAT 8: Tyler Wright (AUS) 12.27 DEF. Ellie Harrison (AUS) 6.13

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Women’s Quarterfinal Matchups: 
HEAT 1: Luana Silva (BRA) vs. Lakey Peterson (USA)
HEAT 2: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Brisa Hennessy (CRC)
HEAT 3: Gabriela Bryan (HAW) vs. Isabella Nichols (AUS)
HEAT 4: Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW) vs. Tyler Wright (AUS)

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Men’s Round of 32 Results [Heats 1 - 8]: 
HEAT 1: Ethan Ewing (AUS) 15.00 DEF. Ryan Callinan (AUS) 12.80
HEAT 2: Connor O'Leary (JPN) 13.43 DEF. Marco Mignot (FRA) 12.33
HEAT 3: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 16.10 DEF. Liam O'Brien (AUS) 14.33
HEAT 4: Seth Moniz (HAW) 15.70 DEF. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 13.50
HEAT 5: Jordy Smith (RSA) 13.93 DEF. Imaikalani deVault (HAW) 12.17
HEAT 6: Joel Vaughan (AUS) 11.97 DEF. Crosby Colapinto (USA) 11.50
HEAT 7: Morgan Cibilic (AUS) 12.17 DEF. Cole Houshmand (USA) 8.17
HEAT 8: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 14.70 DEF. Alan Cleland (MEX) 14.10

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Men’s Round of 32 Remaining Matchups [Heats 9 - 16]: 
HEAT 9: Italo Ferreira (BRA) vs. Xavier Huxtable (AUS)
HEAT 10: Matthew McGillivray (RSA) vs. Griffin Colapinto (USA)
HEAT 11: Rio Waida (INA) vs. Samuel Pupo (BRA)
HEAT 12: Barron Mamiya (HAW) vs. Ian Gentil (HAW)
HEAT 13: Yago Dora (BRA) vs. Alejo Muniz (BRA)
HEAT 14: Jake Marshall (USA) vs. Joao Chianca (BRA)
HEAT 15: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. George Pittar (AUS)
HEAT 16: Jack Robinson (AUS) vs. Jackson Bunch (HAW)