Owen Wright: ‘Surfing is always going to be a part of my life’

T he Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, is the longest running event in competitive surfing. It is a celebrated competition held each Easter; heavy Southern Ocean sets provide a blank canvass for big carving turns, to a soundtrack of ACDC’s Hells Bells. The trophy, a large bell, is one of the most sought-after in the sport – famously, “you’ve got to win it to ring it”.

Over the years, the beach’s natural amphitheatre has played host to some of the all-time greats: Mick Fanning, Kelly Slater, Mark Richards and Stephanie Gilmore have all rung the bell. Bells Beach is surfing’s theatre of dreams – and in the week ahead, it will play host to Owen Wright’s swansong.

Bells is an apt location to farewell one of the most determined and well-liked Australian surfers of the past generation. “I’ve been coming here since I was 10 years old,” Wright tells Guardian Australia. “My whole family has wanted to be professional surfers or world champions or ring the bell since we were such tiny grommets.”

Wright comes from a family of surfing prodigies – his sister, Tyler, is a two-time world champion, and his brothers also surf. Last year, Tyler rung the bell after beating Carissa Moore in the final. “To see Tyler do that last year was just so awesome, man,” Wright says. “It was like a world title – and it was like the whole family had won. That’s all we had talked about forever.”

And so it is only fitting that Wright ends his career, aged 33, at Bells. On Thursday he won through the first round. Depending on his progression and the scheduling, he could end his career as early as this weekend. “Now I’ve got the opportunity to finish my career here – it seems like a fairytale ending,” he says.

It’s a time of