Easter arrives early in 2008 and the world’s longest running and most prestigious surfing event – the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach – has also moved its dates forward to March 18-29.

The Rip Curl Pro is Stop 2 of 11 on the 2008 ASP Men’s World Tour and Stop 2 of 8 on the 2008 ASP Women’s World Tour.2007 ASP World Champion Mick Fanning

Professional surfing’s elite competitors will be onsite to compete for this year’s Bell trophies, including current ASP World Champions Mick Fanning (Gold Coast, Australia) and Stephanie Gilmore (Gold Coast, Australia).

Fanning won the 2001 Rip Curl Pro and Gilmore will return to Australia’s Surf Coast as the defending Rip Curl Women’s Pro champion after defeating Sofia Mulanovich (Peru) in the final last year.

“I’m really excited to get back to Bells Beach this year,” said 20-year-old Gilmore. “The Rip Curl Pro is really prestigious and it was a honour to win last year. To have my name on that Bell trophy, with all of those surfing legends is great. It’s a huge honour!”

“The Rip Curl Pro started it all,” adds 26-year-old Fanning. “Everyone that has won a Bell has gone on to do something pretty huge in surfing. The champions list is pretty much the who’s who of professional surfing.”

Sharing the spotlight with the world’s best male and female surfers this year will be a host of Australia’s best young musicians, set to crank up the volume on the Bells Beach Music Stage on Easter Saturday and Sunday.

Adelaide rockers Wolf & Cub, Melbourne funk band Dé Jah Groove and famed AC/DC coverband ACCA/DACCA will headline the festival, with a host of other local artists also playing onsite at Bells over the two days.

Bells Beach is one of the world’s most awesome natural amphitheatres to watch high performance surfing and with two reigning Australian world champions, event organisers expect record crowds for Easter this year.

For those unable to visit Australia’s Great Ocean Road for the event, Rip Curl will be broadcasting the entire Rip Curl Pro live via internet webcast. The webcast will be streamed full screen on ripcurl.com by Vividas.