PARKO 0.9 FROM PERFECTION AND OUT

The 2013 Bells Beach RipCurl Pro had more twists and turns lined up for the spectators besides the surfing action.

Defending ASP World Champion Joel Parkinson and current leader of the 2013 series Kelly Slater were both knocked out in the 3rd round of the mens 2013 RipCurl Pro today.

Slater battling some minor back soreness was beaten by Brazilian injury replacement surfer Willan Cardosa while another Brazilian surfer Raoni Monteiro ended Parkinson's quest for the Bell.

“You never want to lose and especially in clean waves in the bowl,” Slater said. “I tweaked my back a few days ago and am nowhere near 100% so I have to go get an MRI on it. That said, Willian (Cardoso) smoked me. Plain as that. He was surfing really well and really powerful so congrats to him. We’ll just have to see what happens during the rest of the event with the other top guys. It’s a long year though.”

In what was an amazing sequence of events Parkinson scored a 10 out of 10 and a 9.1 out of 10 on his two scoring waves only to be beaten by Monteiro with a combined total of 19.17 for his two scoring waves.

“No one ever wants to lose,” Parkinson said. “No one wants to lose with a 10 and a 9 either, but Raoni (Monteiro) is surfing really well and if he beats me with those kind of scores then he definitely deserves credit. Losing out at Bells early is a lost opportunity, but it’s a long season ahead. I’m going to regroup and focus on Brazil.”

MOORE IS BETTER!

American surfer Carissa Moore has won the 2013 Rip Curl Women's Pro at Bells Beach in clean 3 foot waves and in doing so has moved up to the #1 ranking for the current 2013 Women's Pro Surfing Circuit.

2013 Rip Curl Womens Pro Champion Carissa Moore with the famous Bell!         Photo courtesy RipCurl

Moore from Honolulu Hawaii opened up her scoring with a solid 9.57 score just after the start of the final. and held off Aussie finalist Tyler Wright to claim her first ever Bells win.

Following on from "Super Saturday" where arguably the best ever day of womens surfing in history took place, the current top two rated surfers on the tour went head to head in the prestigious Rip Curl Womens Pro event.

Neither girl had won the event previously so something special awaited the huge spectator gallery that had packed on the shore line to watch this epic battle.

Moore posted the high score of 9.57 immediately after the start of the final . Wright soon followed with two low scoring rides that didn't allow her to display her amazing skill on the wave.

        Moore on the way to an epic win                        Wright in perfect conditions    Photo courtesy Rip Curl

From there the ocean went quiet, so much so that both competitors had to settle for mediocre waves in a bid to score points. It was disappointing to watch as both girls waited for waves given the fact that earlier the men had scored plenty of 8+ waves.

Moore had caught a wave minutes before the end of the final that took her most of the way into the shoreline.

By now the bell had disappeared from the reaching hands of Wright. Gracious in defeat Wright gave Moore a big congratulating hug when Moore returned back to the take off point minutes before the end of the final.

With the level of competition and skill displayed by the women this week along with the sportspersonship, Womens surfing is here to stay.

Well done to the girls and event organisers Rip Curl.

Historic Day of Surfing Decides Rip Curl Pro Finalists, Wright and Moore to Face Off for Bells Title

BELLS BEACH, Victoria/AUS (Saturday, March 30, 2013) – The Rip Curl Women’s Pro Bells Beach presented by Ford, Stop No. 3 of 7 on the 2013 ASP Women’s World Championship Tour, completed a mammoth day of competition today with Rounds 2, 3, 4, the Quarterfinals and the Semifinals all ran in pumping four-to-six foot (1.5 – 2 metre) waves at Bells Beach.

Tyler Wright (AUS), 18, current ASP WCT No. 1, put on an inspired performance throughout today’s five rounds of competition, blending her energetic approach with unmatched power in the Bells Bowl. The young natural-footer closed her day out with a Semifinal win over a rampaging Courtney Conlogue (USA), 20, in classic Bells conditions.

“That was my fourth surf of the day so I am exhausted,” Wright said. “Courtney (Conlogue) has been impressive all day and I knew it was going to be a battle on my hands. Fortunately I had a strong start because Courtney came back in a big way towards the end and had opportunity on her last wave if she didn't’t fall. Great heat and let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

This afternoon’s Semifinal win earned Wright her third, consecutive Finals berth of 2013 – a Final that can be run as early as tomorrow.

“Tomorrow’s my third straight Final this year, it’s my birthday and it’s Easter so yeah, it’s going to be a big day if we run,” Wright said. “Look, Bells is an event I’ve been watching since I was a kid. It’s prestige is second to none and we have waves on tap. I’m just really excited for tomorrow.”

Conlogue, despite the near miss in the Semifinals, had a sensational day of competition, posting scores in the excellent range before coming up just short of Wright this afternoon.

“Always tough to lose when you have opportunity but congrats to Tyler (Wright),” Conlogue said. “I had a good day, we had great surf and it’s a good result for me. I’ll just take the confidence and regroup for New Zealand.”

Carissa Moore (HAW), 20, 2011 ASP Women’s World Champion, closed out the day’s action with one of the highest-scoring bouts in women’s surfing history against California powerhouse Lakey Peterson (USA), 18, in this afternoon’s Semifinals.

“I’m so proud to be a part of women’s surfing right now,” Moore said. “Everyone was so inspiring today. The waves pumped, the girls ripped. It’s just a really really exciting time for women’s surfing and we’re really fortunate to have such great waves for this event.

Moore will now face Wright in a rematch from the previous event’s Final in Western Australia.

“Back-to-back Finals for me and Tyler (Wright),” Moore said. “It’s really cool and we both have one event win each this season so we’ll really be fighting hard to get the second win of the year. She’s surfing really well so it will be a good battle.”

Peterson, into her sophomore year amongst the women’s elite, was electric throughout today’s competition, consistently posting excellent scores en route to her Semifinal clash with Moore.

“That was probably the most exciting heat of my life,” Peterson said. “I was out of it for so long and then was able to come back with two big scores. It’s disappointing to rally and fall short, but that’s competition and congratulations to Carissa (Moore). Good result though and I’ll carry that with me to New Zealand.”

This morning saw reigning five-time ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), 25, confirm the sustaining of a small undisplaced fracture of the bone in her left foot from her Round 1 heat two days ago. After consulting with physicians and receiving treatment for the injury from on-site medical staff, the phenomenal natural-footer proceeded to surf through three rounds of competition, posting mammoth scores before falling agonizingly close to Wright in this afternoon’s Quarterfinals.

“Alana (Blanchard) accidentally ran me over in Round 1 the other day and it resulted in a small fracture in my foot,” Gilmore said. “I was a bit touch and go yesterday as to what I was going to do about it, but I spoke to the doctors and got some treatments this morning from the medical staff on-site and it feels okay. I guess four surfs in one day may have been a bit much on it, but I was still posting solid scores, just came up short to Tyler (Wright).”

Today’s Equal 5th place finish marks a relative low light in an otherwise incredible run at the Rip Curl Women’s Pro Bells Beach (previously collecting three wins, a runner-up and 3rd).

When women’s competition resumes, Wright and Moore will go head-to-head in the 2013 Rip Curl Women’s Pro Bells Beach Final.

The 2013 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach will be webcast LIVE via www.live.ripcurl.com and broadcast live on Fuel TV in Australia and Portugal, ESPN in Brazil and MCS Extreme in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland and Africa. You can also watch the event live via the Rip Curl Pro iPhone app, available free in the iTunes App Store.

Coastal Watch, official forecasters for the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, have called for: A mid period SW swell eases into Saturday with light WNW winds throughout the day. A stronger increase in long period SW ground swell arrives over the Easter long weekend, peaking on Sunday morning under moderate to strong W/SW winds. Another long period S/SW ground swell arrives on Wednesday 4 and eases into Thursday 5 April. SW swell may fade to very low levels over the weekend of Saturday 6 April.

For more information, log onto www.aspworldtour.com

RIP CURL WOMEN’S PRO BELLS BEACH ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Malia Manuel (HAW) 18.20 def. Laura Enever (AUS) 7.50
Heat 2: Pauline Ado (FRA) 15.67 def. Coco Ho (HAW) 6.20
Heat 3: Tyler Wright (AUS) 16.33 def. Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 12.20
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.80 def. Rebecca Woods (AUS) 10.00
Heat 5: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 16.90 def. Sage Erickson (USA) 15.00
Heat 6: Paige Hareb (NZL) 12.33 def. Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) 12.17

RIP CURL WOMEN’S PRO BELLS BEACH ROUND 3 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 16.54, Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) 14.97, Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 13.83
Heat 2: Tyler Wright (AUS) 16.83, Malia Manuel (HAW) 13.90, Paige Hareb (NZL) 8.18
Heat 3: Carissa Moore (HAW) 12.50, Pauline Ado (FRA) 9.10, Alana Blanchard (AUS) 6.76
Heat 4: Lakey Peterson (USA) 18.00, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 17.44, Silvana Lima (BRA) 9.84

RIP CURL WOMEN’S PRO BELLS BEACH ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Paige Hareb (NZL) 15.03 def. Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) 13.63
Heat 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 18.80 def. Malia Manuel (HAW) 15.37
Heat 3: Silvana Lima (BRA) 17.32 def. Pauline Ado (FRA) 11.17
Heat 4: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 16.74 def. Alana Blanchard (HAW) 9.87

RIP CURL WOMEN’S PRO BELLS BEACH QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 18.10 def. Paige Hareb (NZL) 16.93
QF 2: Tyler Wright (AUS) 16.87 def. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.83
QF 3: Carissa Moore (HAW) 18.37 def. Silvana Lima (BRA) 9.77
QF 4: Lakey Peterson (USA) 16.43 def. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 16.10

RIP CURL WOMEN’S PRO BELLS BEACH SEMIFINAL MATCH-UPS:
SF 1: Tyler Wright (AUS) 13.67 def. Courtney Conlogue (USA) 12.73
SF 2: Carissa Moore (HAW) 18.67 def. Lakey Peterson (USA) 18.50

Tyler Wright on her way to the Womens Final                                                         Photo courtesy RipCurl 

RIP CURL PRO BELLS BEACH ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:

Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Jacob Willcox (AUS)
Heat 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Jack Perry (AUS)
Heat 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Oney Anwar (IDN)
Heat 4: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Patrick Gudauskas (USA)
Heat 5: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 6: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 7: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Glenn Hall (IRL)
Heat 8: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 9: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Brett Simpson (USA)
Heat 10: Travis Logie (ZAF) vs. Sebastian Zietz (HAW)
Heat 11: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 12: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)

The Rip Curl Pro is presented by FORD with partners the Victorian Government, Momentum Energy, mophie, Tooheys Extra Dry, Jim Beam, Skullcandy, Red Bull, Telstra, Surf Coast Shire, Surfing Life Magazine, Fuel TV, Ozmosis, Nova, CO2 Australia, Coastalwatch Plus and co-managed by Surfing Victoria.