They’re all in town. Torquay was once again filled with the worlds best surfers for the 2011, 50th anniversary Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach in Torquay.

At the media launch the WCT’s best surfers told us one by one how excited they were to be back, how they’re in the best form they feel they could be, and that the forecast is looking ideal for a cracking comp.

Going for his 11th World Title, all eyes were on Kelly Slater. There was a whirr of camera motors and shutters as he calmly confirmed before a paparazzi-esque crowd he was confident about ringing the bell a fifth time saying “If I wasn’t hungry to win an 11th ASP World Title, then I wouldn’t be here.”

Taj Burrow (current world No. 2) is also in awesome form and on everyones radar heading into this event, after finishing Runner-Up at the Quiksilver Pro in March.
With a prior win, and two Runner-Up’s at Bells, Taj’s eager to continue his good start to the season that may finally, give him his world title.

For the women, Steph Gilmore was beaming with the biggest smile on the beach today, visibly excited about being back at the bowl, ready to restart her season after a Quarterfinal loss at the Roxy Pro on the Gold Coast in Feb.
With some great results at Bells in the past, and her injured wrist feeling much stronger than at the Goldie comp, Steph’s definitely in the running for another trophy, but it won’t be a walk in the park up against driven rivals Carissa Moore, Tyler Wright, & Sally Fitzgibbons.

Pro talk aside, there are going to be people all over the world tonight that think Bells is a permanently banging wave, as the moment the international media crews started filming, the waves popped up into perfect formation, set after set. The sun came out for the media event, and disappeared with the surfers leaving everyone set for an awesome week.

For more info, head on over to the ASP site.