No Contest: Mick’s Retirement Party, Maurice Cole’s Secrets, Bells Vs. Winki And The Best Surfer At The Bowl

No Contest is back! Your side of stage vision from all the occurrences around and behind the World Tour. This time, we’re checking in at Bells Beach, the second CT stop, home to the longest running event on the circuit and final resting place of Mick Fanning’s competitive career.

Mick’s an iconic face at the Bowl and there was no more fitting venue to big adieu to the seventeen year tour vet than the Rip Curl Pro. Within we have an inside peek at Mick’s retirement affair, an old fashioned group selfie and why Mr. Fanning thinks golf’s a “shit game”.  

Oh and of course the tour populace agree that Mick really is that good at Bells. Just ask ADS, he’ll tell you, “Yes. He’s pretty good.”

Alongside Mick’s going away gala we also sampled some of Torquay’s finest; Maurice Cole being at the top of that list. The three time Australian National finalist turned foam connoisseur has been chiselling foam blocks in the region well before the turn of the millenium and consequently knows a bit about Australia’s south.

Maurice isn’t merely a pair of steady hands and precise eyes either; he’s the “godfather of Torquay” and he’s damn knowledgeable, so we subsequently picked his brain: Bells, Winki, the takeoff zones and everything Vicco. And it’s heartbreaking to consider the amount of content left lying on the cutting room floor from our half an hour chat.

Out of the shaping bay and onto the shore we hassled those surfing when the contest was on a red-light:

Winki or Bells? Who’s the early bird that gets the worm? And of course, whether the World Surf League is in need of a “kid-zone” as Filipe puts it, or perhaps free contraception for all athletes?

One thing we know for certain is that if anyone beats Adriano for the early, he’ll be down there before the sun rises the next morning – well that’s according to Filipe anyway.

Jack Perry of Modom Surf, another permanent figure on the southern stretch, leads us through Torquay’s industrial ghetto; here we learnt sex wax costs six bucks a block and that the Southern tip charges a fiver for a caffeine dosage.

Don’t fear if talking heads, local economies and retirement parties don’t pique your interests either; as per usual there’s plenty of surf to feast upon, featuring the likes of John Florence, Mick, Kolohe, Jordy and the eventual Bell ringer, Italo.

But do you think we’d give it all away in the editorial? Of course not, now scroll back up – if you haven’t already – and dine upon Stab and Red Bull’s 12 minute Victorian showcase.

West Aus is less than a week away, so dial up those Q’s below and if they’re at least mildly civilised and intelligent, we might just flick them to our CT friends. We’ll have everything from 4k cams to iPhone 4’s in hand, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled while John picks apart main break again next week.