35th Annual Bells Beach Rip Curl Pro

Red Bull athletes stand tall on the podium with Andy Irons as men's runner up, and Sofia Mulanovich in second place on the women's side.

Men's Division

Andy Irons rang the small bell, taking second place at the 2007 Rip Curl Pro at the famous Bells Beach in Australia. Irons was the dark horse of the competition, staying out of the spot light and just working his way through his heats with out too much fuss before unleashing a furry of spectacular surfing in the quarter finals.

From then on, it was game on, the fire was lit and Andy let his surfing do the talking, taking down fellow Red Bull teammate Mick Fanning in the semi-finals. The Fanning Irons heat was probably one of the most intense of the day with an incredible exchange of waves and a level of surfing that showcased why these two guys are rated as the fiercest competitors on the Men’s World Championship Tour. Unfortunately only one man can the win heat and progress to the finals and today it happened to be Andy’s Day.

Irons a two-time winner of the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach was on form to make it three. Leading the point’s tally throughout the heat and despite various efforts from Taj Burrow to surpass him, Andy managed to come out with the superior waves throughout their exchange. That was until the dying two minutes of the heat, when Burrow picked the wave of the heat, destroying the long walls on offer as he worked his way down the line and into the shorey, posting an unmatchable 9.0 ride and leaving Irons in the devastating position of runner up after being so close to sealing the victory.

“You never have it in the bag, especially in a final with a guy like Taj, Irons said. “ I knew there was another set coming in, I just wasn’t sure if it was a good one. There were two waves in my set but I don’t think that I would have got a 9.0 on my wave. I think Taj surfed well and smart in the end so he nailed it. I’m stoked for him.”

After a bad result at the first stop of the year on the Gold Coast, Andy was happy to be up on the podium with Burrow. “Everyone writes you off as soon as you have a bad result so it feels good to show that I am still here and I’m not going anywhere.” Said Irons.

Overall Mick Fanning still holds onto the lead of the ASP World Tour, with Andy Irons jumping up into 9th place. Ben Dunn also continuing on with his solid start in this his rookie year, finishing up 9th at the Rip Curl Pro and sitting in 6th spot overall for the season. The next stop on the Men’s Fosters ASP World Tour is at the heavy left had break of Teahupoo in Tahiti, starting on the 4th May.

Women's Division

Defending champion Sofia Mulanovich fought her way through the rounds in 3-4ft stormy conditions at the famous Bells Beach reef break in Victoria, Australia, to make it to the finals against rookie Stephanie Gilmore.

2004 World Champ, Mulanovich was in the lead for the first, two thirds of the final and looked in a strong position to take out the event for the second time, however Steph Gilmore had other plans picking up the wave of the heat, attacking it top to bottom all the way to the beach and posting a very impressive score of a 9.33 with only 6 minutes left on the clock.

“Steph is such a great surfer and before my heat I was super nervous”, Mulanovich said. “She’s so amazing, just to watch her surf and see her score. I’m just stoked to make it to the final with her.”

Sofia’s surfing throughout the contest was incredible, with many of the girls tagging the defending champion as the one to beat as she managed to average scores in the eight plus range in the heats leading up to the finals, not to mention taking down the current world champion Layne Beachley in the semifinals. The second place result catapulted Sofia from 17th on the women’s tour to third position overall.

“To make the final was a great improvement,” Mulanovich said. “My Gold Coast result was a throw away… I can still be in the running for the title.”

The next event on the ASP Women’s World Tour is in August in Brazil.