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Kipp Caddy knows you\u2019ve got to pay to play, and for everyone who surfs waves like Shippies, it\u2019s worth it. Photo: YouTube\/\/Screenshot<\/p>\n
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This is going to sound strange, but bear with more for a second. I like getting skunked. I like getting skunked because if it weren\u2019t for those disappointing days, the good days wouldn\u2019t be so good. If every day was firing and perfect, then every day would be average. You can\u2019t have the sweet without the sour, as they say, and that holds true at big wave spots as well as normal spots. In the video you see here, courtesy of the inimitable Tim Bonython, the viewer sees the flip side of big-wave filmmaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the part nobody posts when the swell charts look perfect, the forecasts align, and reality still says \u2018no,’\u201d Bonthon wrote<\/a>. \u201cShipstern Bluff in Tasmania is capable of producing some of the most incredible and intimidating waves on the planet. But getting it right isn\u2019t luck \u2014 it\u2019s a chain of decisions, timing, experience, and often, educated guesswork that either pays off\u2026 or doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Bonython spends most of his time filming waves or traveling to film said big waves. He\u2019s used to the grind, but he knows what he has to do to continue doing it. It\u2019s behind-the-scenes work, but having a solid grasp on the conditions he might be able to expect is very, very important.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore a single frame is shot, the process starts days out with weather models,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou\u2019re watching storms form, tracking pressure systems, and trying to understand whether a swell will actually line up with the reef at the right angle and energy. Just as important is the swell period \u2014 the time between waves and swell direction which directly translates into the power and punch of the ocean. A long-period swell carries deep ocean energy that can wrap into Shipsterns with serious force, while a shorter-period swell can feel disorganized and lack the critical push needed for those heavy, breaking sections.\u201d<\/p>\n As any surfer knows, though, swell height and period alone do not a good day make. There are other factors that are just as important, depending on the spot.<\/p>\n \u201cThen comes the wind \u2014 because even the best swell can be ruined by the wrong breeze,\u201d Bonython went on. \u201cAnd then tides and timing: at Shipstern Bluff, the tide doesn\u2019t just change the wave height, it changes the entire shape and behavior of the slab. A rising or dropping tide combined with the wrong period can turn a forecasted \u2018day of days\u2019 into something completely unrideable.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps most importantly, there\u2019s one final, crucial step: knowledge. For Bonython, a knowledgable guy with years of experience himself, that means insider insights.<\/p>\n \u201cTalking with surfers who know the spot intimately, checking forecasts with specialists, and leaning on years of field experience to make the final call,\u201d he said. \u201cGo, or don\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n Once the trigger is pulled, the planning comes into play. And for a filmer like Bonython, there are a lot of them. But even when everything is done, when all the plans have been made, the forecast picked apart, all the factors taken into consideration\u2026 things can still go sideways.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce that decision is made, the logistics kick in \u2014 flights with oversized gear, car hire, accommodation, boat or Jet Ski support where possible, drivers, fuel, food\u2026 the cost of a single mission can quickly climb into serious territory,\u201d Bonython finished. \u201cIn places like Nazar\u00e9<\/a>, a ski and driver alone can run into thousands of euros. At Shipstern Bluff, it\u2019s different \u2014 but no less demanding. You\u2019re often carrying all your gear on foot for a one- to two-hour hike, turning into a packhorse before you\u2019ve even seen the ocean. And after all of that \u2014 after the planning, the travel, the money, the anticipation \u2014 the ocean can still turn up empty or wrong. Glassy expectations replaced by messy reality. That\u2019s the nature of the job. A calculated risk, repeated over and over, where sometimes you get the magic\u2026 and sometimes you get skunked.\u201d<\/p>\n But hey, like I said: the bad makes the good better.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kipp Caddy knows you\u2019ve got to pay to play, and for everyone who surfs waves like Shippies, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,218603,324813,324814,2801,105,324815],"class_list":["post-673293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-big-wave-surfing","tag-bonython","tag-shipstern-bluff","tag-tasmania","tag-technology","tag-tim-bonython"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}