If only next weekend could be this good! 4-foot, offshore wind, great vibe and all the old timers in the water! Surfing in Victoria is bloody great, and next week will see the cream of the crop coming down for the Rip Curl Pro at Bells. In the meantime, today was time for a few young guns (not me!) to compete for the opportunity to receive a wildcard into the Rip Curl Pro; while everyone else had a grin  on their face, surfing perfect Winkipop.

I know jack-merde about the surf culture in Victoria, but there is a great chance I was hanging out with the best surfers that ever duck dived Bells & Winkipop for the past few decades. Surfing Victoria was celebrating its 50th anniversary and whoever had been the king (or queen) back in the days, was there to celebrate. It’s pretty inspiring to see how some of these guys surf 6 times better than me at twice my age.

Here is a short film of the younger crowd at Winki and the super talented locals competing at Bells:

Photos by John Gibbens. Thanks Jono!