It was all going so well for the Aussie hellman until it wasn’t, which begs the question, is this the Big Wave Challenge Wipeout of the Year?
New South Wales charger Kipp Caddy goes hard and doesn’t appear too deterred by the consequences. Look no further than this SURFER Big Wave Challenge entry from Shipsterns Bluff in Tasmania.
The Aussie’s committed himself to the Tasmanian devil for years, and generally relishes the challenge.
“Once I’m past the point of no return I become completely relaxed like I’m in a ‘flow state’ where things change and I’m more in control of my feelings,” Caddy told his sponsor Rip Curl in an interview. “For example, being on a wave like is really loud, but I can’t hear a thing and everything slows right down for me, it’s sick!”
In this instance, Caddy sets the wave up perfectly. He’s towed in early by ace ski driver Dylan Longbottom. He then weaves a few turns together to set up a nice, clean line into the belly of the beast. The flow state is looking solid up to this point. He keeps his body compact and weight centered over his board, but then Shippies does what Shippies does. It starts stair-stepping and mutating under him. He makes it over the first step without too much issue, then things start to go horribly wrong.
At Shipsterns, if the first step doesn’t get you, the second one probably will, and that’s exactly what happens to Caddy. The board goes sideways, the surfer is sent cartwheeling ass over tea kettle and promptly sucked into the vortex and violently thrown over the falls. Needless to say, it doesn’t look very fun.
But Caddy’s used to copping the occasional beating. Last year he pulled into a barrel, took his board to his dome and ended up with a severe concussion and torn hamstring.
“The board connected with my head and knocked me unconscious for a brief period, I remember fighting back into consciousness and been really low on energy and just scratching to surface, the rest is a bit of blur,” recalled Caddy in an Instagram post at the time.
Will his disastrous exploits in Tasmania be enough to earn him Wipeout of the Year honors at the Big Wave Challenge awards in Nazare, Portugal, this October? Only time will tell.
Keep it locked here for regular Big Wave Challenge updates and videos from the latest nominees.
