The deal with this surfing competition is that it’s all about winning and losing. Today, the women, and Stephanie Gilmore in particular, were the big winners, scoring by far the best conditions of the whole event. With today being the final waiting day for the women’s event, the organizers had no choice but to send the girls out in five-foot offshore, sweet as you like Bells Bowl.

Historically, the chicks tend to get the rough end of the stick when it comes to getting to surf in the best conditions, and so for once, they had their moment to shine in epic conditions.

In the end Stephanie Gilmore did that and then some, coming from behind and snatching a victory from arch rival Sofia Mulanovich. With about three minutes to go, she needed a nine and took to a wailing Bells wrapper with her Parkoesque style. It’s no wonder she’s so bloody happy all the time, and she came in flashing the trademark smile with the white teeth and the good vibes knowing that by the time she retires she’ll probably have won about 19 world titles. As it stands right now, she has one already, and now two Bells titles on the trot. Not bad for a teenager.

One man who wasn’t smiling though, was Pancho Sullivan. I was walking up the carpark when the unmistakeable sound of metal on metal rang through the parched Victorian air. Turns out a woman had reversed her car straight into Panch’s 4WD. Luckily for her she happened to pick out one of the coolest guys on the planet and was met with a shrug of the shoulders and a smile.

Now who else was smiling? Bede Durbidge was, the big Aussie continuing his good form, winning one of only three heats of the guys after a big tide and a crook wind killed the comp mid-afternoon. Chatting to him afterwards I made the mistake of mentioning that he was underrated. “Mate I’m sick of that tag, I might just have to win the world title, to get rid of it once and for all.” A fair call from the man who won the Triple Crown and finished in the top 5 last year. That just left Dayan Neve to take out Tom Whitaker in the last three seconds of their heat and Taylor Knox going down to Neco Padaratz through a combination of lack of waves and Neco’s full tilt hack. The crazed inked Brazilian might have only one turn, but I tell ya, it’s damn effective one.

And then - almost in a heartbeat, the surf went dead and the comp was called off. The punters streamed out into the car park dust bowl and most of the world’s best surfers resigned themselves to coming back at 7am tomorrow, as the Rip Curl Pro tries to punch through as many heats as it can. Easter is over, but this thing is very much alive.