Bells Stats Preview

EVENT 2 – 2010 preview

Many Surfers have been to Bells Beach over the years and had little success in the famous Bells Bowl. (321 surfers have competed here and just 22 have won it)
Mick is one of those 22 surfers who are allowed to ring the famous Bell.
“No Kook has ever won a Bell”…
This year will be Mick’s 11th visit to Victoria to compete for the most iconic prize in surfing.
His previous results here include 1 x 1st .. 2 x 3rd .. 4 x 5th .. 2 x 9th and a 17th.
His average event result here of 6.20 which is second only to Andy Iron’s average of 5.60.
Of the 321 surfers who have competed here Mick in my opinion is ranked amongst the all-time greats to visit Bells Beach, and all the greats have all been here. Think of a surfer in history and they have tried to win a Bell.
His record at Bells is parallel with Parko, Andy Irons, Martin Potter, Damien Hardman, Sunny Garcia, Barton Lynch and Mark Richards.
Some of these guys have won multiple Bells but on average they have all posted about the same as Fanning’s record.
Mark Richards won 4 Bells, nobody has more, but Richo’s record show that these 4 years are the only years he won finals heats at the Bells location. Kelly Slater has 3 Bells but his record also shows that these are the only years in his 15 appearances that he has won finals in the Bowl.
Damien Hardman and Sunny Garcia both made the most final heat appearances at Bells, 5 times each with Sunny winning 3 and Damien winning 2, but the ironic thing about Sunny’s record is he never won his Bells at Bells. Sunny’s 3 wins were all at the back-up location of Joanna Beach, 4 hours away…
Winning a Bell is like doing an apprenticeship, very rarely does anybody win it first time here. In fact only the original winner did it, MP (Michael Peterson 73-75)
When Taj won it in 2007 it was his 11th time here, Mat Hoy took 10 years competing here to finally win one. Tom Carroll and Wayne Lynch waited 9 years to ring the Bell… Sunny, Martin Potter and Shane Horan did 8 year apprenticeships before winning, Occy and Shane Dorian 7 years, Ritchie Collins & Trent Munro did 5 years, Hardman, A.I & Parko 4 years, Tom Curren, Kelly Slater and Joe Engel all did 3 years service before their wins.
Hackman, Anderson and Richard who won the first three had all been coming here to competed for several year before the iconic trophy became part of the ASP tour.
But Mick Fanning and 16y/o Nicky Woods only took 2 visits in the main event to become Bell ringers..
Nicky was the youngest winner at just 16, but what many forget is he finished 17th at Bells as a 14 year old two years earlier.
The following list of 18 surfers who had some success here, all had an average result of under 10.0 but only 11 of them won a Bell… Shane Dorian who is another of the Bell Ringers had an average result here of 19.68 and he had a runner up finish as well… It’s hard to be consistent here, but these 18 are probably the best of a big bunch… 5 of the following list still have a chance to add to their careers…
Best Average Results Under 10.0 at Bells Beach Over the Years.
Andy Irons (98-??) 2 wins @ 5.60 ave result.
Mick Fanning (00-??) 1 win @ 6.20
Martin Potter (82-94) 1 win @ 6.23
Joel Parkinson (01-??) 2 wins @ 6.56
Damien Hardman (84-00) 2 wins @ 6.81
Dane Keoloha (79-81) 0 wins @7.00
Richard Cram (81-86) 0 wins @ 7.60
Sunny Garcia (88-05) 3 wins @ 7.80
Mark Richards (76-88) 4 wins @ 7.91
Barton Lynch (81-97) 1 win @ 8.00
Mark Occhilupo (86-07) 1 win @ 8.38
Bede Durbidge (05-??) 0 wins @ 8.40
Wayne Lynch (76-80) 0 wins @ 8.60
Tom Curren (78-93) 2 wins @ 8.91
Wayne Bartholomew (76-88) 0 wins @ 8.91
Shaun Tomson (77-89) 0 wins @ 9.00
Kelly Slater (92-??) 3 wins @ 9.80
Bruce Raymond (77-83) 0 wins @ 9.80

Aloha,
Mike Newman
RAS Surfing Stats

Who will be the Bell ringer in 2010. © ASP

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