Surfing
Surfing
Catch the No Contest high jinks and surf strike missions from Bells Beach
Find free-surf magic, get the lowdown on Australian Rules football, do your bit for the environment and hang out with Mark Occhilupo and Caroline Marks in the latest bumper instalment of No Contest.
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It was one of the craziest outings in the Rip Curl Pro's 58-year run, and away from the webcast the action at Bells Beach easily matched that seen in competition. Check it out in the player below.
23 min
Bells Beach 2019
It doesn't get more Australian than this as the Championship Tour descends on Bells Beach, Victoria.
If you're a surf fan there's no place you'd want to be more for Easter than Torquay in the Australian state of Victoria, and our friends at Stab went above and beyond once again to bring us the best of the behind-the-scenes action.
Empty Australian perfection
© Ed Sloane
Soli Bailey stands tall in a Southern Ocean gem
© Ed Sloane
Matt Wilkinson owns a meaty section somewhere in the Great Australian Bight
© Ed Sloane
Soli Bailey sitting right where you want to be, on the wave of the trip
© Ed Sloane
When a dire forecast loomed for the opening week of competition a jet was chartered and 2016 Bells winner Matt Wilkinson and 2019 Championship Tour rookie Soli Bailey headed off to a chilly surfing El Dorado in the middle of the Great Australian Bight on the hunt for sand-bottom perfection. To say they scored would be an understatement. Upon their return we join the rally aimed at keeping Big Oil out of the large Australian Marine Sanctuary and meet a few key players in the protest.
Kelly Slater and Mark Occhilupo sit down with the cast of Ain't That Swell
© Sam Moody
'80s prodigy Mark Occhilupo meets his modern counterpart, Caroline Marks
© Sam Moody
Michel Bourez soaks up a moment of Australian seaside solitude
© Sam Moody
The Fight For The Bight movement mobilises in Torquay
© Sam Moody
We introduce Caroline Marks to her hero, and the surfer she's most often compared to, 1999 world champion Mark Occhilupo, and revel in the fact that Occy loves having his surfing likened to that of the teenager. Our squad takes off down the coast to surf with Jordy Smith, Michel Bourez and half the Championship Tour, before returning to Torquay and doing a deep dive into two hardcore country favourites, Australian Rules Football and the humble meat pie.
With sport, recreation and diet covered, we wrap up our most Australian episode yet by sitting in on a live recording of irreverent Aussie podcast Ain't That Swell, starring none other than the Greatest Of All Time, Kelly Slater, previously mentioned Mark Occhilupo, and a host of incredible cameos, all played out in front of a raucous capacity crowd at the local lawn-bowls club. It doesn't get more Aussie, nor more fun, than our latest instalment of No Contest, and we sure hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed pulling it together. Hit the triangle on the player at the top of the page... now!
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