Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach 2025: Day 1
Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach 2025: Day 1
Out of the gates on Day 1 with the entire six heats of Women's Round 1 completed and a dag of Mens Round 1 (first heat) in deteriorating conditions before JMD called it to run Expression Sessions, which I was forced to boycott because the surf was 6-8ft here.
It was a pleasant enough start for Bells '25 in 3-5ft Bells Bowl with some weird, nagging ribs running through it which made good reads and rail work attract a premium. El Sal winner Gabby Bryan rode hot momentum into cold Bells for the opening heat of the day, ripping the heart out of two Bells Bowl sets for a 15+ total. That was the clear performance benchmark for the day. Only Tyler Wright in Heat 5 came close with an 8 and a high 6 for a 14.84 heat total.
Gabby (WSL/Miers)
Otherwise, bumps, ribs, rivets, and baubles made clean rail work hard, and heats with random sets and slow soft patches where surfers became almost hypnotised by jet lag and a warm Victorian sun only to be caught inside by bomb sets. Heartbreaking stuff as we moved into the realm of cut talk. Thing is though, with the top 14 of the CT moving onto the expanded '26 tour only three women are going to miss out. The rest, guaranteed a spot on the '26 Tour, enjoy a nine month off season or scrap for petty cash on the Changa. At the moment the bottom three are Tati, out on a mental health break, Johanne, on maternity leave, and our Sal - the hardest working spruiker on Tour. What arrangements will be made for those two is yet to be announced. Someone will miss out when the music stops.
Sally did get through. It wasn't a great heat but typical of what she has offered this year. Undersurfed a couple of waves, then over-surfed, and fell on others. Never really looked in rhythm except for a final small wave she ripped the shit out of for a flat 6. Bella Kenworthy took the heat without ever looking at home in the Bowl on her fourth surf out there. She attacked the opening sections then looked horribly lost on the flat water until the shorebreak. Judges paid the attack with 6's.
Sal (WSL/Miers)
Caz Marks just had a shocker. Went on bad waves, and on a final strike a big set wave rumbled off the edge of the Bowl into deep water, offering nothing. It seems absolutely bizarre our current Olympic Gold Medallist, runner up to the title in '24, World Champ in '23 has yet to nail an excellent score after four competitions. Whether this is a message from judges that Caz' conservative backside hooks are now being considered differently or that Caz is yet to really get hold of a proper wave is still to be determined although the former seems much more likely. Not a word from commentators about this turn of events.
Clean reads and fine rail work were a feature of Ellie Harrison's comfortable win in Heat 2. For a part-timer who, according to her own self assessment on the glass, was “not meant to be here; I'm not on tour” she made the opposition look very ordinary. Ellie looks CT standard all over - although we haven't seen her tube-riding yet. Big proper turns that made Molly Picklum look underdone and positioning and wave choice that made Vahine Fierro look like a first-timer. Definitely a chance for a wildcard win if the surf plays ball.
Caity Simmers got through the next heat with a 6 and a 5 - both scores seeming very generous. Truth is, she bought the same faults from El Sal to this opening heat. Inability to get a rail connected in bump/ribs and falls because of same. What she did in between was faultless as usual and judges remained in thrall. She was well outsurfed by much bigger turns from Lakey Peterson. A hapless wildcard showing from a clearly nervous Carly Shanahan didn't produce any scoreboard pressure on Caity.
Lakey (WSL/Miers)
Best turn of the event today, for mine, was Tyler's opener on her 6.33. Her highest score fetched an 8.17. There's looseness there, power, and more variety then we've seen in the past. This is an improved version of Tyler we're seeing: the “free-est I've surfed in a long time” according to her. She described being back at Bells as like a “warm hug”, a part of which was a spiritual connection she felt with the indigenous custodians of the country. That connection nourishes her and “does something for your soul”. This is a more settled and secure Tyler we're seeing on a personal level as well as the improved surfing prowess we are witnessing.
Surf looked to be holding into the last heat of the womens round with Sawyer Lindblad teeing off on the Bowl and Bella Nichols looking dangerous again after the runner-up finish at Punta Roca.
By the second half of Men's Round 1 Heat 1 it was obvious the Bowl was spluttering as it was drowned by the pink moon high tide. Crosby Colapinto and Rio Waida sent Imai back to the Elimination Round where he has been marooned all year and JMD sent out the icons to entertain an expectant Good Friday crowd.
Steph (WSL/Miers)
Things are different at Bells for Easter. People pay actual money to show up and watch. They need a show and by my calculations, if this is the only heat Steph Gilmore surfs this year she earned a cool $500,000 doing it. Not exactly of course, but it does beg the question: what does a semi-retired athlete have to actually do to earn the $4 million over eight years that Steph is receiving from Rip Curl?
Show up at an expression session at Bells once a year? Put out a 10 minute edit from an Indo Trip? Is that it?
Really..?
Where is the value in that?
Sponsorship money is drying up everywhere but someone gets paid millions to sit on the sidelines.
Could someone with a business brain explain this to me, please. My head explodes when I try and think about it.
Otherwise, everything is perfectly explicable on a non-controversial opening day at Bells.
// STEVE SHEARER
Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Women’s Opening Round Results:
HEAT 1: Gabriela Bryan (HAW) 15.50 DEF. Brisa Hennessy (CRC) 12.33, Nadia Erostarbe (ESP) 8.90
HEAT 2: Ellie Harrison (AUS) 13.00 DEF. Molly Picklum (AUS) 9.23, Vahine Fierro (FRA) 8.76
HEAT 3: Lakey Peterson (USA) 13.50 DEF. Caitlin Simmers (USA) 11.67, Carly Shanahan (AUS) 2.90
HEAT 4: Bella Kenworthy (USA) 13.00 DEF. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 11.17, Caroline Marks (USA) 10.60
HEAT 5: Tyler Wright (AUS) 14.84 DEF. Erin Brooks (CAN) 12.76, Luana Silva (BRA) 7.76
HEAT 6: Sawyer Lindblad (USA) 14.63 DEF. Isabella Nichols (AUS) 12.66, Bettylou Sakura Johnson (HAW) 5.00
Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Men’s Opening Round Results (Heat 1):
HEAT 1: Crosby Colapinto (USA) 12.84 DEF. Rio Waida (INA) 10.20, Imaikalani deVault (HAW) 8.07
Comments
Someone like Steph doesn't come along very often. I have zero business brain, but I reckon she's worth it to the Curl for her rep and aura, and ability to bridge between comp career and free-surf twin-fin style game. Maybe the scarcity of her output might be carefully portioned management? ... And not that I've got any idea, but for context around the numbers, you'd dive in to the landscape in and around the Curl before Steph's deal was cut?
I don't see it from an ROI perspective. Last I heard that company is circling the drain anyway.
I think she's just from a bygone, well paid era and her agent negotiated a kick arse contract. Good on her!
I sometimes think of Kolohe Andino and he must be the best paid surfer of all time if you take into account his competitive success. Good for him too!
Personal observation; pure damage control! The whole backlash where old mate was wearing a bikini, combined with having a ceo that couldn't ceo, wasn't helping the bottom line any. But sign up Australia's darling of the surf scene then and suddenly it's a "heritage" surf brand again. All those boycotts and burning board short shenanigans suddenly toned down!
The Mick and Steph duo is always an easy throw out to any main stream media outlet.
For the yearly cost of 10 Casual retail staff, ripcurl did all right. She doesn't even have to go and prove she can surf a Left ever again either. ( low blow I know, but did she ever win a comp on her backhand?)
"All those boycotts and burning board short shenanigans suddenly toned down!" Next week, on shit that never happened...
2 second search
https://beachgrit.com/2024/10/markets-rocked-as-brooke-farris-the-rip-cu...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-13020915/Rip-Curl-...
We discussed all of this last year, after Brooke resigned. Plenty of share price and sales analysis in the comments too.
Long story short: "The fact is, since early 2020 KMD shares had been in decline, with the boycott period closely matching the pattern that already existed."
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2024/10/17/brooke-farris...
Yes, on all accounts. looks like some of the ex-pros might want to look at schooling those loveable dumb rascals they've produced .
Steph's brand is way higher to the general public than any of the women on tour , and it's that market every surf co want to tap into.I once had a conversation with the original owner of Swiss vitamins when they were growing rapidly with the help of advertising. He mentioned they didn't use current sports people as they didn't want to tie themselves to how that person was performing at the time, so they sought older legends of their sport. It gave them more credence being tied to beloved legends and also younger sports people had a greater chance of fucking up in the media.
Yeah I think you're right, they're always using retired people to sell shit and nostalgia is a strong emotion. I guess Steph is worth 10 retail assistants as well. I stand corrected.
I'd have to take your word for it.
I could see that logic applying for non-endemic brands; the watches and cars and cameras etc etc...
But for a surfing brand?
They are really going to sell an extra 4 million dollars worth of wetties, boardies and tee-o's?
I just come from a different background where people have to work and actually produce something to get paid. I can't get my head around collecting a monthly cheque for doing nothing, or close enough to nothing.
Look, if she comes back next year and competes, I'll eat these words in a heartbeat.
I don’t get it either. Must be a charmed existence.
As you know , the money for surf brands doesn't come from die hards, it's Dads wearing Rip Curl T's , Mum's buying a Rip Curl towel and neither surf, just maybe go the beach every now and then. Steph is all over the news in Vicco at the moment and will be up north when Snapper starts, she's the face of women's surfing as far as the general population are concerned . They don't even realise that she's not on tour anymore.
You may well be right.
I haven't seen much of her on mainstream news lately- but thats just from reading ABC and Guardian articles and the occ. viewing of a free to air TV station.
Just by contrast- I happened to watch the Final Round of the US Masters. What Rory McIlroy had to do as far as performing under pressure goes was just insane, made me think he earned every single cent of his money.
It's the getting paid without having to produce anything for it which trips me out. Especially for surfing, in this current age of dried up sponsorships.
KMD share price has been hovering around an all time low since last winter (with a brief spike in Sep, before it fell again).
I'd be curious on how the parent company views surfing sponsorships. As far as I'm aware, Kathmandu have not done direct athlete endorsements before however they have recently signed up to be the official apparel provider of the NZ Olympic team (which sounds more lucrative as it covers a larger number of athletes at the same time, ensuring greater chance of brand exposure).
If it makes you feel any better, I reckon it’s a lot less per year than Steph used to get paid.
Steph is a blue chip property, same as Mick, same as MP, same as Curren. Style for days in a segment where it's rare.
As an executive with a large and once successful Australian youth retail clothing brand in the 80s, 90s. the volume of sales required to produce a net profit of $4,000,000 is staggering. Really only achievable by the likes of Gap etc.
"I just come from a different background where people have to work and actually produce something to get paid. I can't get my head around collecting a monthly cheque for doing nothing, or close enough to nothing."
Ha ha ha. Steve, there are not a lot of people who are more genuine and sincere than you, and the world was a better place when 'people had to work and produce something to get paid'. The naivety is telling, and believe me that is not an insult.
That world went the way of the dodo somewhere in the late 80's/early 90s.
Largely the people earning the biggest paycheques produce nothing, have rarely been near anyone who has ever produced anything, and get their butler or maintenance guy to look after that dreck. They are the C-suite (CEO's) and senior executives of the world, where all the money that is produced by 'people who actually do something' is funnelled inexorably towards the top of the pile where they collect bonuses that are multiples of the annual salaries of 'people who produce something'.
I'm also being sincere, I could not comment on anything you write in any other way, it would be sacrilege.
But the people who make off with all the moolah could barely boil an egg for breakfast, they probably have someone wipe their arse and bathe them. They usually come from money and private schools and think themselves as 'stable geniuses'. They can attend meetings till the cows come home, say 'Strategic' and other bullshit corporate bingo phrases till your ears are bleeding, are useless and deficient fathers and husbands, but fuck yeah, they earn the big bucks.
I suspect, and it is a big compliment, that you have no idea.
Steph is an absolute minnow on the 'fleecing the unsuspecting' boat, even at that rate.
Love your work, as ever.
On point I reckon, and so super wholesome. However, she does seem to have a super low output, hell Asher Pacey and Margo seem to have more online presence.
Instagram followers: Asher Pacey 110k . Margo 67k. Steph 700k. Maybe not pumping out as much content, but probably has more eyeballs on her. Beats me how they measure the worth of a (semi) retired athlete though.
Ahh Ringa he sold it for a tidy sum as well great storey that one and now sharing his largesse with his mates - an original and very generous bloke.
No Ronnie?
He's there.
Both Blakey's there.
I’d love to see a stats person look back and analyse the wave quality (or lack thereof) on the tour the past 3 or 4 years.
It could all be an illusion and a case of recency bias, but the world best are not getting to showcase their wares in conditions befitting their status.
Every comp in 2025 has been dudded for conditions, save for an hour here or there……..but really in the past few years, it feels the same, does it not?
Could it be this is how it has always been and trying to fit the two tours into one window is the biggest reason most heats are surfed in subpar surf?
Thoughts?
Yes you’re exactly right , the Wsl has induced bad karma on itself . Since the cut ,they don’t listen to their fans or surfers . Worst of all before every heat the wsl hand the judges an envelope stating who they’d “like” to win , the judges don’t have to oblige, or do they ? The wave gods really don’t like this, hence the constant shithouse conditions ..
Solitude, my anecdotal analysis says you are dead right. It has been a really difficult two, three years to maintain any sort of interest in the CT. They have been regularly skunked, epic conditions beforehand, epic conditions after the comp, and dreck in between or just a few hours of quality.
I missed the entire Pipe contest, and I missed very little, but the before and afters were pretty amazing.
Re: reduced cut for the women this year. I’d prefer to see the same cut but more opportunity for promotion from the CS (read: up and comers), than recycling the dead wood.
……..But I’d also prefer to see no cut and no CS
Hope you scored some great waves Steve.
Overlapping heats in clean waves...could have been interesting.
The warmup waves looked so fun. Compared to some of the shit holes the WSL goes to I really don't understand the anti-Bells crowd. Sure, its rubbish when its small and full but even then, it shits on Rio and Supertubes IMHO
Looks pretty fun to me….single fin heritage round next year
from what I saw, Medina would win this comp, the only surfer tracking his Bells lines was Bella Kenworthy.
?si=tGJe5EeqmAHHQuDcThey should treat opening round & elim like a trials and just get it done asap, almost regardless of conditions.
The WSL's best product is the Rd 32/16 overlapping heats format. It's surfelicious stuff in peak conditions and they do score that pretty regularly. If desperately.
Steph is a legacy style master
.. the rules do not apply
Steph Gilmore is an eight-time world champion. Hopefully, she will become more active. She has said she was rehabbing some lingering injuries. Who wouldn’t want to watch some new edits of Steph on clean barrelling overhead righthanders? It’s time for her to take some trips please.
It looks likes she's just been on a search trip with mason ho and Mick fanning. What a trio can't wait to see what they come up with
Probably , cloudy with Vaughan.
The search film director.
Great to see Ellie get through. She’s been a standout locally for a long time.
Not across the details but I gather she was involved with the attempted rescue of the guy that drowned at 13th the other week.
Hopefully gets a strong result at Bells.
I just flicked thru the Heat Analyser. I found the judging very trippy. Despite i few fumbles & rail catches, I guess Lakey won her heat against Caity with larger waves and some more powerful looking turns but its so ugly to watch. Horrific style. I liked watching Caity so much more. I guess Kenworthy won but overscored among a bad lot. I thought Crosby was hugely overscored. Sure, his waves were larger but he didn't do much apart from one very good turn on each wave. I thought Rio's higher score, while a smaller wave, was extremely well surfed, a whole lot of tight neat turns put seamlessly together. Rio's last wave was weak. I guess the heat easily went to Crosby but not by 2.64 points. I thought Rio's little combo turns runner was the best wave of the heat.
?si=KX0_2y7Ct2aha053I can see why Steph took another year off tour.
8 world titles,the quite high probability of not winning anymore at her age and stage of career,and still another 7 years of a guaranteed 500k a year she'll earn,on top of being well financially set for life even before signing that deal,then why should she?
I don't believe she fully deserves such a generous deal though,considering she wasn't loyal to Rip Curl her whole career (unlike Mick),and quit them to surf for Roxy for about half of it.
Some of her world titles were won with Roxy stickers on her boards and not the Curl's too.
Rip Curl are obviously a great company to be sponsored by if you'd had a lot of competitive success in your career.
I don’t know if Ellie Harrison is a good tube rider, but she certainly got righteously kegged at Kirra last month.
fabulous wave... beautifully surfed... lifetime wave...
Agree! Epic
It's a bit speculative re Steph and my best guess is the deal that she did would not be repeated today and she clearly had connections with ex CEO Brooke that go way back. As someone said earlier they had some bad PR with old mate and a Steph signing is a good news story. The number of high profile surfers around these days with no major sponsor though makes it seem a bit rich now. She's done well for herself and good on her but I can't see RC continuing this without some results at some point soon. Mick will be getting less and pretty sure Steph would have sold them the competitive comeback dream. They only held Wilko a couple of years after he was challenging top 5 then gone. It's a ruthless business and as Ben queried KMD around their thoughts. They have picked up the Olympic team but that's generally gear only albeit lots of gear. But can imagine the accountants at KMD looking closely at all the costs and where they get bang for bucks. Even Tiger Woods is still playing or at least trying to play when not injured.
Steph causing a rise in costs despite flat sales
That's a pretty sorry direction of travel for the EBITDA. They can spin it every way they like but that's a hard situation to dig yourself out of without any fundamental change. And obviously the US will be a huge problem for sales going forward as well. Steamers doubling in price?? How is that going to work for sales? Not an easy time right now for surf companies and I would think every single team rider needs to understand that and pull their weight to help the hand that feeds them. Applies to Steph as much as anyone
If Sal can be sponsored by everyone with zero world titles i reckon Steph is good value with 8.
Her contract by the way would include plenty of commitments - the right to use her image in advertising and on product, time commitments for launches, corporate events, public appearances, surf trips and film commitments. Expected ongoing social reach, scheduled posts etc etc. Yep its a heap of money but a nice pick up by Curl considering she was with Quick for all those wins.
Ellie drew her line and stayed there! Nice
Splitting with Bethany would’ve saved them a quid too, I assume. But I also assume she provided them enormous reach. Perhaps the most recognised surfer ever, and the most admired. Her heterodox views considered sane and sensible by most. The institutional culture seems to be turning back her way now too. Wonder if KMD Brands regret the split? She would have been as close to marketing gold for them as you can get. Even her religious perspective probably plays well in middle America, with those non surfing folk who’ll shell out for the T-shirt with a logo on it - as described above.
The Woz conferring pariah status on Bethany while tacitly endorsing the repeal of habeas corpus seems passing strange anyhow.
Sales are hanging in there but not costs
Do you really care how much Bethany Gilmore makes . News flash it’s none of your business . Anyway, she’s won 8 world titles with one arm or something. We came to watch the best, not the rest, put the bloody men on !
wait… when did paid free surfers become a thing?
If the florences dropped a clip of them having a 'competition' we'd be there
Cheering for Ivan btw
What would Curren be getting ?
He hasn’t competed for twenty years
Good call Beggsie and ditto for Tom Carroll, Occy, Parko etc - good on Steph for grabbing some coin while she can, she's earned it and is still earning it (unless you've seen the details of her contract how do you know what duties she has to perform?).
I see a lot of blokes here riffing on Steph, but none of you are asking the question of the men who have been in the same position for a lot longer (ie getting paid by long term sponsors and not competing).
I don't think there is anything sexist in it- I'm certainly not aware of any retired or semi-retired male pros chalking up significant long term contracts. If I was, I would view it through the same prism.
The sponsorship pie is only a certain size.
Progression and continuity in a sport is predicated on champions retiring , moving onto other forms of income and those sponsorship dollars moving towards other people at the beginning or middle of their careers.
Case in point- I notice Jacko Baker riding a white board over the weekend, presumably dumped by Rip Curl.
There's a slow motion train wreck happening now whereby QS and CS surfers are quitting the sport because of a lack of sponsorship support.
There is no sport without renewal from below.
Does Occy get paid? What does Parko have to do to have the bong sticker?
We'll never know- but it's likely peanuts or free gear.
red bull apparantly used to have jason polakow on 400K a year...he had to release 3 clips a year for that. to put that into prospective with the few or several years ago that was and inflaction ect ect.... steph is on minimum wage @500k
more than happy to be fact checked on that.
Hey Freeride, sorry if I wasn't clear - I meant the blatant sexism in some of the comments on this thread, not in the deal itself - there doesn't appear to be any in the deal, why would there be?
And I guess just like LOB, Isabella et al, Baker doesn't have the runs on the board (yet) to demand a top pay day, so he/they get dropped. That's always been the case. I can remember early 2000's an Aussie finishing in the top 10, his main sponsor went belly up and he was off tour because none of the big 3 would pick him up.
So if I'm a legacy brand, I want a legacy surfer repping my gear, and that is Steph all day, not a kid just off his rookie year - does that make sense?
Keep up the good work too mate, really enjoying your coverage lately.
Not sure if footy appearances are paid for by Rip Curl or Visit Victoria, but I sure am happy he's wearing the right colours. He got the coin toss right too.
Go Catters.
This is a good point, esp regarding Parko. Can't be getting much reward for that investment. I'd be very surprised if Steph doesn't have some sort of longform edit out by the end of the year, and everyone will watch the shit out of that thing.
yep. like when comedians started to work out that doing a yearly special was the go, and gigs were just to test the material. wsl is the equivalent of grinding it out on a prestigious comedy cellar circuit.
Steph is the queen. Whatever pittance she still recieves from Ripcurl, gold, silver, millions..whatever...it isn't enough.
End of story.
Queen!
What are the thoughts with how the cards play out with a 4 foot forecast?
One big backhand hack and a full rotor beats 2 and a half searing rail top turns?
I think we are yet to see what judges will pay.
I don't think this is particularly relevant to the discussion but I found it interesting. I was away for the weekend recently with some non-surfer mates. We were watching the footy and an ad for Best Sheds came on with Sally Fitz. My mates started talking about how cute the best sheds girl was and wondering where they found her, assuming she was just some country girl with a nice smile the shed company had found to help sell their wares. I informed them she was a pro-surfer and that was why she was hired. They were flabbergasted. They couldn't understand why a shed company was hiring a not very famous pro-surfer to be in their ads and kept asking "does anyone who doesn't surf actually know she's a pro surfer?"
Sounds like Sally Fitz was a good choice as she's appealing to both the surf crowd and the non-surf crowd. Steph would be an even better choice for non-surf brands selling cereal to kids and stuff. People know who she is. But whether she is a good investment for an actual surf brand on the same basis, who the fuck knows? To me, it seems like surf brands had their moment and they're never getting it back.
You definitely don’t see anyone under the age of 30 wearing gear from the big three.
Gee, I’m no fashionista but would only buy something from a top surf brand if it was super functional and was for surfing.
What ever happened to Alana Blanchard and Rip Curl? She must’ve made the millions.
True Solitude, people under 30 (my 2 kids) aren't wearing any surf gear. St V de P gets a good run, as do clothes from websites selling clothes that other people bought but no longer want.
They are renting, they don't have the money for the big three.
Golden Steph does three Weet Bix with milk and honey, how many do you do?
I found her Audi ads a bit cringeworthy, but good luck to her.
She gets paid more for having fun riding waves than an emergency doctor gets for saving lives.
Steph was very canny getting an eight year deal.
yep but Rippy knew exactly where she was at. There was no doubting she was in the twilight of her pro career. As mentioned above it's more likely a ploy by the curl to divert attention away from the transgender issue. That one nearly took them down. Whatever the cost eh?
Probably a master stroke to save the business.
And yeah, still canny as by Steph!! haha. And she's the Queen. So whatever the cost...pay the queen. There is no other queen and she's priceless!! I'd happily chip a few cents each week from my tax to the Queen!! Which should be the bigger conversation. Hail our Queen.
Great write up as always FR just one point I'd argue with, it isn't cold in the water it is balmy for locals, what is it around 18, beautiful. Wait until August that IS cold.