Australia's women's surfers lead local charge before bell tolls on WSL season

The Guardian

17-04-2025

Every morning of competition at the Bells Beach Rip Curl Pro, the longest running surfing event in the world, begins with AC/DC. Hells Bells by the iconic Australian rockers booms through speakers around the contest site on the Victorian surf coast. The bell tolls slowly, before the guitar riff gradually builds – an overlay of drums lifts the tempo until finally, a full third of the way into the song, Brian Johnson's booming vocals begin.
When the 62nd edition of the legendary surf competition begins on Friday, the backing track will serve as a useful metaphor for the World Surf League season to date. After four gripping but relatively slowly-building events so far, the world's best surfers begin the first of three legs in Australia: Bells, the Gold Coast Pro and then the Margaret River Pro in Western Australia.
The WSL field have three more events at full voice before Margaret River is the scene of the dreaded 'cut', when the men's lineup drops from 34 to 22 surfers and the women are slimmed from 18 to 10. The music is beating, the lightning is flashing (at least in a figurative sense) and an intriguing Australian triple crown is underway. Thanks to a sponsor deal, the best-placed surfer from these three legs will win a car.
Australia's Molly Picklum has been the most consistent women's surfer on tour this season. The 22-year-old has progressed to the last four in all four stops to date, and was runner-up in the wave pool in Abu Dhabi. But so far, an event win has eluded Picklum in 2025 – leaving her third overall, behind defending champion Caitlin Simmers and Hawaii's Gabriela Bryan with one event win each.
Bells has been a wave of mixed fortunes for Picklum; she reached the final in 2023, only vanquished by fellow Australia Tyler Wright, but failed to collect a heat win last year or on debut in 2022. 'For my name to be scratched into that Bell, it would be a dream come true,' she said on Thursday.
Wright is always a threat at Bells; the two-time WSL champion sits in fifth overall, after winning the opening event of the season at Pipeline before struggling to progress through the rounds at subsequent stops. Wright and Picklum are joined inside the top 10 by compatriot Isabella Nichols, who reached the final in El Salvador a week ago, but had to miss her twin sister's wedding as a result.
Two-time Bells champion Sally Fitzgibbons is the only Australian woman outside the cut-line. The veteran had looked in good form after requalifying for the WSL through the second-tier Challenger series last year, but has faltered once back on the tour – winning just two heats all year. Fitzgibbons will need to kickstart her season in Victoria if she is to have any hope of avoiding a return to the Challenger ranks after Margaret River.
The Australian quartet are joined at Bells by local wildcards Carly Shanahan and Ellie Harrison. The latter, just 19, impressed last year after winning through the trials, ultimately reaching the quarter-finals. Both are part of an exciting next generation of Australian women's surfing; together with the likes of Sierra Kerr and Milla Brown, big things are expected in the years ahead.
In the men's draw, Australian Ethan Ewing will be among the favourites with his rail surfing well-suited to the long Bells lines. Ewing won the Bells title two years ago, following in the footsteps of his late mother Helen Ewing (née Lambert) – an early pioneer in women's surfing. During an emotional trophy celebration, Ewing told the crowd to 'tell your mum you love them, because you never know what life throws at you.' Ewing enters this year's edition ranked second in the world, after an impressively consistent start to the season: reaching the semi-finals in Abu Dhabi and Portugal, and the quarter-finals in El Salvador last week.
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Olympic silver medallist Jack Robinson will be hoping to bounce back from a disappointing showing in El Salvador, his round of 32 exit sending him tumbling to ninth place in the WSL rankings (the top five at the end of the season qualify for the finals, to be held this year in Fiji). Australian WSL rookies Joel Vaughan and George Pittar are both performing above expectations – comfortably above the cut-line to date; Pittar looked strong as a wildcard at Bells last year, and will be hoping for another good outing.
With favourable conditions forecast, the Bells Beach Pro will begin in earnest on Good Friday – and is expected to run intermittently until late next week. Every morning will begin, as tradition dictates, with the AC/DC classic. Then, after the final is run and won, the two victors will ring another bell – the brass bell that adorns the celebrated trophy.
It is a sacred prize; local folklore insists that 'you've got to win it to ring it.' It is an honour once described by surfing supremo Kelly Slater as 'arguably the best trophy you can win in surfing.' Certainly, few surfing titles come with a better backing track.