The 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 emotion for Wright, being back at Bells pulling on the competition jersey. “I’m feeling so grateful,” he says. “All my career is flashing back. I’m just really excited to get that one last shot.” The form is good – Wright beat defending world champion Filipe Toledo and Hawaii’s Ian Gentil in the first round.

For Wright to win the competition and ring the bell on his final attempt would be quite the fairytale. “I’m in good form – I have a shot,” he says.

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When Wright announced his intention to retire last month, it came as a surprise. The Culburra Beach surfer won bronze for Australia at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when the sport made its Games debut. Despite failing to make the midway cut in last year’s World Surf League (WSL), Wright had still been surfing at a high level – there was every chance he could return to the top-tier fold. Instead, he admitted at the time it was his health rather than his competitive spirit that was behind the decision to walk away.

In 2015, at the end-of-season Pipeline Masters in Hawaii, Wright suffered a traumatic brain injury following a nasty wipeout. The Australian was left unable to walk or surf – it took months of agonising rehab to get him back on the surfboard and, ultimately, winning again. Against all odds, Wright returned to the world tour and won his return event, on the Gold Coast, 15 months after the injury. He won again in 2019, clinching the Billabong Pro at the heavy-barrelling Teahupo’o in Tahiti.

“That was a really hard recovery to come back from that,” he says. “Learning to walk again, slowly building myself up to where I could surf again. Now I’ve been back on tour for a few years, I’ve had some big wipe-outs since then, some knocks to my head. I’m now at the age where I don’t want to get another knock, I don’t want to go through that process again. I have been advised to prioritise my health, my brain health, and step out while I am in good health.”

It was a tough message for Wright to receive, but ultimately a decision he has grown to embrace. “When I first heard that, I did not want to [step away] – I was at the top of my game,” he says. “But now I’m really happy that I have listened and am stepping back. I think it’s a really important part of my story – you recover and push through and keep striving, but then also pull up when it’s time to listen. If I can bring some more awareness to head injuries – not just the short-term effects, but the long-term effects of these things – if that can help someone along the way, then I will be happy.”

Wright steps back from the sport with a glittering resume, having won Rookie of the Year in 2010, four world tour competitions and the bronze medal in Tokyo. But he cites that most recent triumph as a career-defining highlight.

“I had the accident, and then the Olympics got announced – it was a shining light at the end of the tunnel. It wanted to have a medal around my neck. Since the injury I have had problems with stamina, so I knew competing 11 or 12 events a season [on the WSL tour] was going to be tough. But the Olympics is a one-off event, and I knew I could perform.

“So winning that bronze medal, man, it was just a huge moment for me. My family was right behind me, and all of Australia too. It was a really special moment – probably the biggest moment of my career.”

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Since the injury, Wright has been an active advocate for reducing risk and improving awareness around brain health. There has been increased use of helmets while surfing at heavy waves, and the WSL has adopted a concussion protocol. “I’ve been lucky to be fully supported by the WSL, inside and outside the sport,” Wright says. He intends to continue this advocacy post-retirement, including with the publication of a book later this year.

While Bells might be the end of Wright’s competitive career, he has no plans to give up surfing. “I’ll be surfing for the rest of my life,” he says. “I’ve got my health and I’m happy. I won’t be chasing those big heavy waves, I’ll just be surfing with my family and surfing as much as I can. Surfing is always going to be a part of my life – I live and breathe it.” After more than a decade chasing some of the best waves in the world, Wright admits that he might have to adjust his expectations. “I’ll probably just get some mellow wave somewhere.”

Wright will also continue to cheer on his sister, who he cites as a major source of support during his recovery. Going into Bells, Tyler is ranked four on the world tour and the 29-year-old is well-placed to claim a third world title later this year. But after years on the tour together, Owen might have to watch on from his living room instead. “I was up all night watching [the live-stream from] Portugal,” he laughs.

Whatever happens in the days ahead, Wright bows out following a decorated career as one of the leading Australian surfers of his generation. He says he would love to go out on the highest-high, following in his sister’s footsteps and ringing the bell. But whatever the surfing gods throw at him in the coming days, Wright will be retiring on the right note.

“Wherever I end up in the competition, I’ll just be super pumped,” he says. “But if I got the win? That would be freaking wild, I’d be so pumped on that, it would blow my mind. Wherever I end up, it is what it is – I’ll be super pumped anyway, mate.”