So it’s started. After a couple of weeks of apocalyptic heat waves, a chilly gale ripped through Bells Beach yesterday, turning a four-foot and glassy Winkipop lineup into a raging windswept sea. In a heartbeat, boardshorts were swapped for beanies, summer fishes for pintails and ice creams for hot pies.

On the plus side, the eye-bleeding wind did whip up a new six-to-eight foot swell, and with the ravenous Victorian crowd pouring into Bells (I followed three 60 year-old women kitted out with deck chairs, blankets and a thermos of tea), there was no way the Rip Curl Pro wasn’t going to run.

Not that the new swell was an easy one to figure.

“It was pretty hard out there,” said Pancho Sullivan, after his Round One win. “It was hard to find any steep sections, and there’s a lot of water moving. I’ve been coming here for 14 years and know it well, but this place can always throw a curve ball at you.”

Mick Fanning probably doesn’t know what a curve ball is, but if he did, he’d know that he saw one rip straight through his Round One heat. Early on, he was absolutely annihilated on a gone wrong close-out floater, and never really recovered. Physically he was fine, but needing only a six, Adrian Buchan paddle-battled him to death and that was that; Mick was relegated to the second round—no place for a current world champion. Luckily, he didn't stay long, and late in the day powered over a young Aussie wildcard named Stuart Kennedy, and back into the third round where he belongs. “Yeah, Round Two sucks,” he told me afterwards. “But it’s done now, I’m all go.”

Mick will join the rest of the big guns in Round Three: Andy Irons was strong safe and steady; Taj did enough on two big ones to get through (and survived two enormous paddles as, cruelly, there are no jetskis used in Round One); and Parko scooted through.

That left Kelly Slater, who after a slow start, and needing some big scores after Adriano de Souza lit up with a nine, went absolutely ballistic. One turn—a leg-burning, heartwarming, mind-searing drawn-out bottom turn to full-face hack on a solid eight-footer—scored a 9.5 all on its own. Not bad for a guy who wasn’t going to show up.

And so after a mammoth 21 heats, the Rip Curl Pro is well under way. The surf is predicted to drop a little, and the winds are staying ugly, but with packed stands baying for blood and a whackable Bells Bowl on offer, we should be roaring tomorrow. I’ll let you know what goes on.