Kipp Caddy tangles with a Tasmanian devil. Photo: Tim Bonython // YouTube
Leave it to the Australians to give a cute nickname to a monster. Shipstern Bluff, the spine-snapper of a slab wave located on the southeastern coast of Tasmania, is affectionately referred to as “Shippies” by its regular visitors. One of those maniacs is big wave videographer Tim Bonython, who just posted a new short from his latest visit to the wave.
Titled “Stern Warning,” the video features a bevy of phenomenal surfers, both homegrown and international. Noah Hassett, George Vanderkelan, and Jake Steel came to represent the local talent. Meanwhile, Kipp Caddy, Lucas Silveira, Anne Dos Santos, and Dane Woods flew in from abroad to tackle the oncoming swell.
“When the forecast calls for 15 feet plus with a long 17-second period, it’s the kind of swell you simply have to chase,” explained Bonython in the caption. “A period like that means the swell has traveled from a powerful storm deep in the Southern Ocean — and when that energy finally hits the reef at Shipstern Bluff, the wave mutates. It gurgles. It folds. It creates those infamous steps on the face, turning the drop into something completely unpredictable.”
