Adriano DeSouza, with a season under his belt, it may be his time.

It's bloody cold in Bells. You can almost feel your testicles losing volume when your drive into the car park. I actually thought I could hear them make a light deflating whooshing sound when I saw the contest super structure. I could be wrong though; it could have just been the excitement.

I find Bells very exciting, so exciting I missed the first few heats. My sources said Wardo went pretty well, scored one of the highest waves of the day. "It was pretty shitty though early," reckoned Aussie Ace Buchan. "Four or five foot, good swell, but pretty bumpy. It improved during the day. Well for me anyway, I won and anytime you are surfing Bells Bowl with three guys, life's pretty good."

I assume he's right. Life wasn't so good for Aussie rookie Kai Otton, he slept in and almost missed his heat. "I was on the red-eye from Perth (that's a five hour flight that lands on the east coast at 5.00am). Then I missed my alarm. I was pretty confused. I had six boards in the car and not a clue what to ride. Then for the whole heat, I'd paddle for a wave and get a set on the head."

It can be a confusing place. At one stage I didn't know whether to open a beer, surf Winki (it was pretty fun all day) or watch the heats. I watched the heats. But I was still confused. During the day, with the tide coming up, there was some waves breaking on the Bells Bowl, some on the inside Rincon reef, pretty much that classic Bells mind fuck (conundrum??). Mind you a few guys seemed to be getting their head around it. "Mick and Kelly surfed the best, then daylight second. He often is," reckoned Rip Curl Pit Boss Matt Griggs. I actually thought Andy and Parko and Kelly would have pipped Daylight, which again is confusing, cause that's a weird name for a surfer. There used to be a theory Kelly doesn't like surfing Bells. Well he looked pretty smooth and relaxed to me, got 16 points or so, just like that.

There was a pretty small but hardy crowd there. Most of 'em stayed all day, just chilled to the bone and watching every heat, eating horrible, sloppy meat pies and loving it. Andy was Andy, you know strong and powerful and confident and all that stuff. Luke Munro, a rookie was all over it too, nice and groovy and smooth. Bede Durbidge doesn't have a sticker on his board and stomped it. I find that a little confusing but Pancho's and Brucey's hacks, well even I can get my shrivelled balls and pea brain around those things. So that was it. The first day of the Rip Curl Pro. As I said, you can feel the excitement in your nether regions. It's Bells, and as Ace said, it's a bloody good place to be.

FULL ASP PRESS RELEASE AND HEAT RESULTS WITH PHOTOS