The 2012 Rip Curl Pro – The 51st Gathering of the Tribe

2012 RIP CURL PRO
April 3-14
Bells Beach, Victoria

The Rip Curl Pro – the world’s longest running and most prestigious professional surfing contest – will this year be celebrating its 51st anniversary at Bells Beach in Australia’s surfing home of Torquay from April 3 to 14.

The ASP World Tour’s best 34 male surfers, one Rip Curl Wildcard and one local Victorian Wildcard from the Wingman Trials will be at Bells over Easter to compete in the year’s second Men’s ASP World Tour contest. There will be only one winner at the end of the marathon slog, earning the opportunity to ring the prized Bell on the final day of competition.

Australian Taj Burrow, straight from a win on the Gold Coast, will come to Bells with confidence, hopeful of taking down defending champion Joel Parkinson and the other contenders. Two-time ASP World Champion Mick Fanning, rising stars Owen Wright, Gabriel Medina and Julian Wilson, and of course 11-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater are all must-watch surfers during the event.

The guys will share the Southern Ocean swells with the ASP Women’s World Tour’s best 17 surfers, who will also be at Bells this Easter to compete the season’s second event.

Defending champion Sally Fitzgibbons is hopeful of back-to-back wins, while 4-time ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore will be looking to extend her current lead on the World Tour ratings. Other hot favourites include reigning ASP World Champion Carrisa Moore, reigning ASP Rookie of the Year Tyler Wright and current World No. 2 Laura Enever.

The third diamond in the act will be the Rip Curl International GromSearch Finals, fronting the the world’s hottest 16-year-old junior talent from Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, USA, South America, Europe and South Africa. The sport’s future stars are bred from this junior series, so expect the unexpected when they’re in the water…

The Rip Curl Pro is presented by FORD with partners the Victorian Government, Telstra, Tooheys Extra Dry, Jim Beam, Sea-Doo, Skullcandy, Surf Coast Shire, Tracks, Fuel TV, Ozmosis, Official Forecaster Coastalwatch Plus and co-managed by Surfing Victoria.

The 2012 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 Ma Chaine Sport in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Africa and Mauritius. You can also watch the event live via the Rip Curl Live Events iPhone app, available free in the iTunes App Store.