Torquay and Bells Beach

Torquay and Bells Beach

After 3 days in Melbourne, we headed off down towards the Great Ocean Road. The first stop was a town called Torquay, which is very much a surf town. We stayed in a campsite in Torquay right next to the 'surfers village' - a large complex of surf shops.

Torquay from above

In Torquay we found some great beaches and also some amazing surf shop outlets - Charlotte picked up some fur lined boots for $20 (£10) and I picked up two pairs of Rip Curl boardshorts to replace my worn and weathered ones for $5 each.

Coming from Torquay, the part I as most excited for arrived. Bells Beach is about 10 minutes drive from Torquay. Bells Beach is home to the longest running surf competition in the world, the Rip Curl Bells Beach pro. It's also one of the world's most legendary surf spots, regularly catching huge swell and funnelling it down a reef that's so long it has 3 distinct sections to the wave (Rincon at the top, Bells Bowl in the middle, and the shore break). The wave begins as it hits the reef in front of the cliff, at this point at it's biggest, before coming down into a hollow and fast bowl section that's notoriously hard to navigate on a surfboard, and then finally to the shorebreak. Bells is also famous for being either big, or not really working at all. I spent the whole journey down nervous that I wouldn't be able to surf it as it was in peak winter swell times, and I didn't really want to paddle out in huge swell at Bells. Fortunately, I looked at the surf report and Instagram and both looked outstanding - 4/5 foot, offshore and clean. We drove down right away!

I had an awesome time at Bells. The conditions could not possibly have been any better! A good size, clean, mid-tide, sunny, light offshore winds, not very busy and warm! The stars aligned as if it was just waiting for me to surf it!

In the above photo, you cans ee the exposed reef that the waves break over. It's surprisingly shallow where we were surfing.