The Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, at the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, is the longest operating tournament in aggressive browsing. It is a celebrated festival held every Easter; Heavy Southern Ocean units supply a clean canvass for giant carving turns, to a soundtrack of ACDC’s Hells Bells. The trophy, a big bell, is without doubt one of the maximum sought-after within the recreation – famously, “you’ve got to win it to ring it”.
Over the years, the seaside’s herbal amphitheater has performed host to one of the all-time greats: Mick Fanning, Kelly Slater, Mark Richards and Stephanie Gilmore have all rung the bell. Bells Beach is browsing’s theater of desires – and within the week forward, it is going to play host to Owen Wright’s swansong.
Bells is an apt location to bid farewell to one of the vital decided and common Australian surfers of the previous technology. “I’ve been coming here since I was 10 years old,” Wright tells Guardian Australia. “My whole family has wanted to be professional surfers or world champions or ring the bell since we were such tiny grommets.”
Wright comes from a circle of relatives of browsing prodigies – his sister, Tyler, is a two-time international champion, and his brothers additionally surf. Last yr, Tyler rang the bell after beating Carissa Moore within the ultimate. “To see Tyler do that last year was just so awesome, man,” Wright says. “It was like a world title – and it was like the whole family had won. That’s all we’d talked about forever.”
And so it is only fitting that Wright ends his career, aged 33, at Bells. On Thursday he won through the first round. Depending on his progression and the scheduling, he could end his career as early as this weekend. “Now I’ve got the opportunity to finish my career here – it seems like a fairytale ending,” he says.
It’s a time of emotion for Wright, being again at Bell’s pulling at the festival jersey. “I’m feeling so grateful,” he says. “All my career is flashing back. I’m just really excited to get that one last shot.” The form is good – Wright beat defending world champion Filipe Toledo and Hawaii’s Ian Gentil in the first round.
For Wright to win the competition and ring the bell on his final attempt would be quite a fairytale. “I’m in good form – I have a shot,” he says.
wWhen Wright introduced his purpose to retire ultimate month, it got here as a wonder. The Culburra Beach surfer received bronze for Australia on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when the game made its Games debut. Despite failing to make the halfway reduce in ultimate yr’s World Surf League (WSL), Wright had nonetheless been browsing at a prime degree – there used to be each and every probability he may just go back to the top-tier fold. Instead, he admitted on the time it used to be his well being moderately than his aggressive spirit that used to be at the back of the verdict to stroll away.
In 2015, on the end-of-season Pipeline Masters in Hawaii, Wright suffered a stressful mind harm following an unpleasant wipeout. The Australian used to be left not able to stroll or surf – it took months of agonizing rehab to get him again at the surfboard and, in the long run, profitable once more. Against all odds, Wright returned to the arena excursion and received his go back tournament, at the Gold Coast, 15 months after the harm. He received once more in 2019, clinching the Billabong Pro on the heavy-barrelling Teahupo’o in Tahiti.
“That was a really hard recovery to come back from that,” he says. “Learning to walk again, slowly building myself up to where I could surf again. Now I’ve been back on tour for a few years, I’ve had some big wipe-outs since then, some knocks to my head. I’m now at the age where I don’t want to get another knock, I don’t want to go through that process again. I have been advised to prioritize my health, my brain health, and step out while I am in good health.”
It used to be a tricky message for Wright to obtain, however in the long run a call he has grown to embody. “When I first heard that, I didn’t want to [step away] – I was at the top of my game,” he says. “But now I’m really happy that I have listened and am stepping back. I think it’s a really important part of my story – you recover and push through and keep striving, but then also pull up when it’s time to listen. If I can bring some more awareness to head injuries – not just the short-term effects, but the long-term effects of these things – if that can help someone along the way, then I will be happy.”
Wright steps again from the game with a glittering resume, having received Rookie of the Year in 2010, 4 international excursion competitions and the bronze medal in Tokyo. But he cites that the majority contemporary triumph as a career-defining spotlight.
“I had the accident, and then the Olympics got announced – it was a shining light at the end of the tunnel. It wanted to have a medal around my neck. Since the injury I have had problems with stamina, so I knew competing 11 or 12 events a season. [on the WSL tour] was going to be tough. But the Olympics is a one-off event, and I knew I could perform.
“So winning that bronze medal, man, it was just a huge moment for me. My family was right behind me, and all of Australia too. It was a really special moment – probably the biggest moment of my career.”
SSince the harm, Wright has been an energetic suggest for decreasing possibility and making improvements to consciousness round mind well being. There has been greater use of helmets whilst browsing at heavy waves, and the WSL has followed a concussion protocol. “I’ve been lucky to be fully supported by the WSL, inside and outside the sport,” says Wright. He intends to proceed this advocacy post-retirement, together with with the e-newsletter of a guide later this yr.
While the Bells may well be the tip of Wright’s aggressive profession, he has no plans to surrender browsing. “I’ll be surfing for the rest of my life,” he says. “I’ve got my health and I’m happy. I won’t be chasing those big heavy waves, I’ll just be surfing with my family and surfing as much as I can. Surfing is always going to be a part of my life – I live and breathe it.” After greater than a decade chasing one of the best possible waves on the planet, Wright admits that he may have to regulate his expectancies. “I’ll probably just get some mellow wave somewhere.”
Wright will even proceed to cheer on his sister, who he cites as a significant supply of improve all the way through his restoration. Going into Bells, Tyler is ranked 4 at the international excursion and the 29-year-old is well-placed to assert a 3rd international name later this yr. But after years at the excursion in combination, Owen may have to look at from his lounge as a substitute. “I was up all night watching [the live-stream from] Portugal,” he laughs.
Whatever happens in the days ahead, Wright bows out following a decorated career as one of the leading Australian surfers of his generation. He says he would love to go out on the highest-high, following in his sister’s footsteps and ringing the bell. But whatever the surfing gods throw at him in the coming days, Wright will be retiring on the right note.
“Wherever I end up in the competition, I’ll just be super pumped,” he says. “But if I were given the win? That can be freaking wild, I’d be so pumped on that, it might blow my thoughts. Wherever I finally end up, it’s what it’s – I’ll be tremendous pumped anyway, mate.”