Photos: Cait Miers, Ed Sloane // WSL
Isabella Nichols and Jack Robinson have rung the bell. This weekend, the pair of Australians claimed victory at the longest-running event in professional surfing: the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach.
The fifth stop on the 2025 Championship Tour got off to a rough start earlier this week. Substandard conditions led to a series of delays, and eventually the call to move the competition to its backup location at Winkipop. Once there, things picked up a little bit, with some surprisingly surfable conditions on offer. However, to add injury to insult, Morocco’s Ramzi Boukhiam suffered a freak accident while returning to shore from his opening round heat, leaving him with an injured knee and possibly the rest of his season in jeopardy. Eventually, things turned around at Bells and the competition returned to its original location to settle on a winner.
Photo: Ed Sloane // WSL
Jack Robinson’s path to the men’s finals was hard won. In the first elimination round, he knocked out Maui up-and-comer Jackson Bunch, immediately followed by a round of 16 matchup against two-time champion Filipe Toledo. In the quarters he went up against Jake Marshall, followed by a tough semi bout against last-year’s championship also-ran Griffin Colapinto.
The final was a matchup between Robinson and Kanoa Igarashi. Up until the halfway point, it looked like Kanoa might run away with the victory (and some online commenters still maintain that he won the whole thing). However, a 7.77 score from Robinson inched him just half a point ahead of Kanoa, a lead which proved insurmountable as conditions deteriorated.
“I thought there was going to be more waves in the Final,” said Robinson after the win. “I just had to get in front of Kanoa. I knew that it was kind of getting slow. There was a reason why I didn’t go on his waves.”
Later on, Robinson reflected on the significance of the moment. “It’s really surreal and special. There’s not too many words for it, when you’re in the moment – just being and going out there and doing it,” he said in an interview on the podium. “It was a really cool final with Kanoa. I had this feeling that we’d match up, just because we’ve been hanging out a little bit the last few days. It was cool.”
Photo: Ed Sloane // WSL
On the women’s side, Isabella Nichols fought her way through most of the WSL’s top women’s contenders to get to the podium. In the very first round, she was pitted against against up and coming phenom Erin Brooks, which was followed by a quarterfinal matchup against the winner of the last CT event, Gabriela Bryan. As if that wasn’t enough, the semi was against two-time world champion Tyler Wright.
The final heat was between Nichols and Luana Silva. Isabella never really felt like she was in trouble throughout the matchup. Right out the gate, she scored an 8.33 – the strongest of the heat. Luana cobbled together a few middling scores to jump ahead on paper, but all it took from Nichols was a 6.83, which she then replaced with a 7.93 for good measure, to cement her win.
“I don’t really think I have words for this one, right now,” said Nichols on the podium. “To have my family down here, it’s a tear-jerker, honestly. I can’t put into words, this feeling that I have. The caliber of surfing in the women’s tour right now is insane.”
On to the next one: Stop number six is The Gold Coast Pro, starting May 3. Though traditionally held at Snapper Rocks, the WSL recently announced the event would be moving to Burleigh Heads, due to changes in bathymetry caused by Tropical Cyclone Albert. See you there.
