Tough to beat Shippies for pure looks, isn’t it? Photo: Tim Bonython
Tim Bonython is a man who has seen the world’s biggest waves at their absolute biggest. He’s been documenting huge swells around the world for years, and one of them stands out among the rest in terms of sheer impressiveness: Shipstern Bluff.
“Shipstern Bluff is one of the most dangerous and mesmerizing waves on the planet,” he wrote. “It’s a place I’ve been drawn to since my very first trip in the early 2000s with Koby and Jye Abberton, Dean Morrison, and Glyndyn Ringrose.”
It is indeed a wild place. Far flung and desolate, it sits at the base of Cape Raoul on Tasmania’s wild Tasman Peninsula. The ocean is alive there, full of danger and wonder. The Southern Ocean is one of the rawest places on the planet, and surfers who ride there are testing fate each and every time.
“Out of the deep Southern Ocean, swells explode onto the reef, mutating into heaving right-hand barrels with infamous ‘steps’ that surfers must navigate before locking into the ride of their lives,” Bonython explained. “On this mission, we were treated to a flawless bluebird day.”
Quite a few of the usual suspects were there, including big-wave icons Russell Bierke and Tom Myers, as well as 18-year-old up-and-comer Lex O’Connor, Genji Pitt, Zeb Critchlow, and bodyboarder Cohen Thomas.
“For me as a cinematographer, the light, the conditions, and the scale of the day came together perfectly,” Bonython finished, “capturing Shipstern Bluff at its most raw, cinematic, and unforgettable.”
