The Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach surfing event wrapped up on Sunday with maiden victories to Tyler Wright of Australia and Felipe Toledo of Brazil.
Both surfers had come close before, Wright achieving two seconds and two third placings since 2011 and Toledo a second placing in 2019, but despite their consistently high rankings, the great bell trophy had eluded them.
However, this year, both looked confident from the start of the event, with consistent performances throughout.
A two-time world champion, Wright said the win at Bells felt similar to winning a world title.
The victory comes after Wright made a brave come back to the top following a severe case of post-viral syndrome, which left her bedridden for much of 2018-19 and suffering from debilitating neurological symptoms.
Wright spoke of the long journey she’s been through, adding that there’s a big difference between people thinking she’s back and her actually feeling that way.
“I got obliterated, it was tough, it was tough, and I haven’t really felt like myself in the water, and it’s been hard,” she said.
“So many times you just want to give up because to reach that level of performance that I was at, you know, it took me ten years to get there, and so the last two years, it’s been an emotional ride.”
During the event at Bells, Wright demonstrated great wave selection, speed, and variety of manoeuvres to achieve the highest scores of the women’s event, including two 17-plus scores and a 16.93 in the final to defeat current world champion Carissa Moore, who scored 10.57.
Wright now moves up to second place in the world rankings, while Moore moves to first.
Meanwhile, after the win at Bells, Toledo has also moved to number one in the world, overtaking Kanoa Igarashi of Japan.
While the battle against Australian Callum Robson in the final was tough, Toledo’s greatest hurdle was overcoming Hawaiian John John Florence in the quarter-final.
Florence had been in devastating form, shredding in the perfect Bells conditions, but Toledo brought variety and a commitment to every manoeuvre that saw him take down the two-time world champ, who had beaten Toledo in the 2019 final at Bells.
“I was fully confident that I was going to surf my best, put my heart in every wave.
“And then after beating John, you have that extra confidence going into the next few heats,” he said.
Toledo also commended tour rookie Callum Robson on making the final.
“I was talking to Tyler right now, it took me nine years to ring the bell, and first-year on tour, this dude is in the final. It’s ...amazing,” he said.
The Championship Tour now moves to stop five, Margaret River, Western Australia, with an event window from April 24 to May 4.
