The last two days have been so fun… Shippies was throwing out the goods again with 10-15ft waves yesterday and 8-12ft pits today… Heres a shot from the inside.. I will do a more detailed report with footage and photos the next coupla days……..

Check out this link, Tim Bonython made the journey down to shippies, here’s some of what he saw

[Show as slideshow]

For more shots check out The Collective and theres plenty kicking round on facebook, ASL doing a feature next issue

I woke up Monday morning with one thing on my mind, “buoyweather”. Surfers like myself work in perculiar ways. We rely so much on predictions, it takes over our lives and consumes us whole. Surfing isnt like any other sport. Weather is our friend and our enemy. Thats why we feel like we are closer to nature than most people. We are at Mother Earths mercy and she will do as she pleases. There is nothing constant about it. It changes every second. Its not like a skate park, where the skater can mentally visualise each trick and where to hit each rail… In surfing every wave is different and you have to make split second decisions with in a blink of an eye… This happens in a normal surf session, so try to imagine what goes through your head when your faced with the biggest swell to ever it shippies, the most unpredictable wave on earth…

Tuesday May 17th 2011 will go down in history as the biggest surf ever ridden at Shipstern Bluff.. When the swell appeared on the charts i couldnt believe my eyes. 33ft 16secs with light onshore winds becoming more favourable as the evening progresses… It was , to this date, unheard of.  The predicted onshore winds were a slight worry but we were determined to give it a crack anyway..The next few paragraphs is my account of how it went down…

Tuesday morning we woke to howling onshore winds. But this was predicted so the let down was short lived. One thing was for sure though, the swell was huge.. We were getting reports that the Hobart Points were 3 ft, generally on a stern swell there feathering at 1ft. After some quick preparation checking our gear and packing the car, we were on the road by 8am. Id been checking the coastal observations all night and all morning and could see the wind was slowly turning around and becoming lighter, so once we got to the boat ramp i was pretty enthusiastic to get our shit together and get around there as fast as we could. There was lots of things happening in the ocean i hadnt seen before, like 1ft lines coming into the boat ramp and bombies breaking that ive never even seen cap before…

The teams were Rudi Scwartz/James Mckean, James/Ty Hollmer-Cross , the Pom/Danny Griffiths and Sandy Ryan/Myself. Me and Sandy headed off first because we were meeting up with the boat half way round to offload some boards. Once around at shippies we were met with the biggest mutated lumps of water ive ever laid my eyes on, we didnt see one makeable wave. It felt really different to the last time i was there. The danger vibe was predominant and i didnt want the nerves to get the better of me so i decided to give it a crack straight up. Sandy hadn’t towed before so the poor kid was under pressure to try get me in the spot. My first wave i dropped into a bit wide and tried to fade to get in the spot, once at the bottom i lost all my speed and tried to pull through the back. I ended up getting sucked over, first beatdown of the session, on my first wave.

It was extremely hard to work out the conditions this day, it was like the swell was too big for the reef. Each wave you towed into went below sea level and you had no idea where you were on the wave, it was a total mind fuck to surf. Normally you can tell where the take off is and where the step is, this day the whole wave was stepping out the whole way down the line. One set that came through would of had to be pushing 30ft. It doubled up and we all watched it in awe , as it proceeded to mutate and do stuff you would never imagine a wave could do. There was no possible way you could ride it and it was cringing thinking about someone being on it. Honestly no one could of survived that wave. After about 2hrs james and ty rocked up but still no sign of the others. They proceeded to tell us that Danny’s ski broke down and him and Pom were gonna walk in.After another hour Rudi and Mckean finally showed up. It was a bit offputting that neither team wanted to tow straight away, obviously the waves they were seeing didnt look inviting.

Sandy tackled it fearlessly. It was his first consequential surf since fracturing his neck 6 months ago but he gave it a solid crack. We tried to rig up a neck brace but it wouldnt fit under his wetsuit so we just tried to strap his neck up with a bit of tape. He said on his first wipeout he went over the falls trying to brace his head just hoping for the best. It all held together and he ended up getting some mad rides.

Charles Ward is a local bodyboarder whos turning heads in the booger world. He surfs shippies really well and is consistantly out there pushing himself every swell. He paddled out in the late arvo after standing on the rocks for over an hour waiting for a break in the sets to scramble through the pounding 10ft of whitewash rolling down the point. It then took him and hour and half just to get out the back to where the waves were breaking, due to a strong current dragging him into the middle of the bay. After his efforts and commitment i ended up towing him into one of the biggest pits of the day. He was so fucking stoked.

James and ty are really consistant surfers out at stern. We call them the “terrorists” cause they rock up in there hoods and masks, terrorise the session and make there way home, always getting the job done usually with one of them snagging wave of day. Tuesday was Ty’s day, pulling into an oversized pit that was as hollow as was high. It looked big on Tyler and he’s 6’4, so u know it must of been fucking huge..

Mckean and Rudi are the kamikaze patrol. Those two are just ruthless always frothing so hard and always racking up the biggest wave count. Mckean wiped out on a wave that was the ugliest thing ive seen happen out there. If it doesnt win a wipeout award il be very shocked. I was cringing when i watched the footage that night. Right on dusk  after the boat and most people had left, Rudi proceeded to drop into something incredible. As he hit the step i lost sight of him as the wave went below sea level. He didnt quite make it but it was a spectacular finish to an amazing, historical day.

Unfortunately Mikey , Danny and Pom couldnt be there with us but im sure there thirst for it has grown and they will be charging as hard as ever next session. That Tuesday 17th May 2011 is now a safe stored memory in the bank. It wasnt the best we’d surfed it but it was the biggest. To have it that size and offshore will be a dream that hopefully will happen another time. In the meantime we can sit back and be thankful no one got seriously hurt…..

Check these links out below for more media

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/05/18/3220659.htm

http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/primetime/biggest-shipsterns-ever_55884

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/05/27/3229437.htm

http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/primetime/biggest-shipsterns-ever-part-2_56109

http://www.soggybones.com/to-one-of-the-best-weeks-of-my-life-tim-bonython/

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/gallery-e6frg7mf-1226064197062?page=1

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/-/watch/25271563/surfs-up-in-tasmania/

Holy shit, how many times can i say “umm” in an interview  hahahahahahahaha

You will need to copy and paste the link to watch the clip

Yesterday was fucking mad……. Check in later tomorrow for a more detailed account on the last coupla days

Check out this link to ASL http://www.surfinglife.com.au/news/asl-news/6112-shippies-opening-day

Yesterday Mike Brennan, Andy Chiz and myself ventured on the trek into shippies. We were hoping for a nice 8-10ft fun session, but instead it was mushy 6-8 with a bit of wind coming round the cliffs. Still, its a beautiful walk and a beautiful view, in a beautiful part of the world……Just bloody beautiful maaaaaate

Nominations for the Billabong xxl awards are out with Mikey Brennan in contention for the Ride Of The Year award and James Hollmer-Cross making the top 5 for Monster Barrell…… Fingers crossed for the lads yeeeeeewwww

www.billabongxxl.com

The nominees for 2011, in alphabetical order:

FIVE BILLABONG XXL RIDE OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $50,000 plus a year lease on a 2012 Toyota Tacoma truck – Video prize $5,000)
Michael Brennan
Danilo Couto
Mark Healey
Benjamin Sanchis
David Scard

FIVE MONSTER PADDLE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $15,000 – Photo/video prize $4,000)
Danilo Couto
Shane Dorian
Mark Healey
Sion Milosky
Mark Yazbeck

FIVE BILLABONG XXL BIGGEST WAVE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $15,000 – Photo/video prize $4,000)
Eric Akiskalian
Dan Corbett
Rodrigo “Koxa” Augusto Espirito de Santo
Francisco Porcella
Benjamin Sanchis

FIVE MONSTER TUBE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $5,000 – Still photography prize $2,000)
Shane Dorian
Tom Dosland
James Hollmer-Cross
Mark Mathews
Eric Rebiere

FIVE SURFLINE BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $5,000)
Kohl Christensen (Kailua, Hawaii, USA)
Danilo Couto (Bahia, Brazil)
Mark Healey (Sunset Beach, Hawaii, USA)
Sion Milosky (Sunset Beach, Hawaii, USA)
Benjamin Sanchis (Hossegor, France)

FIVE BILLABONG GIRLS BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $5,000)
Easkey Britton (Rossnowlagh, Ireland)
Maya Gabeira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Keala Kennelly (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA)
Mercedes Maidana (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Jamilah Star (Santa Cruz, California, USA)

FIVE VERIZON WIPEOUT OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $2,000 and a Samsung Tab by Verizon – Video prize $1,000)
Tiago Candelot
Mark Mathews
Everaldo “Pato” Teixeira
Laurie Towner
Ben Wilkinson

Heres some clips from winter 2010 shot using my GO PRO HD. Other surfers include Jy “PICKLE” Johannesen and Sandy “SCALLOPS” Ryan.

Winter 2010 from a GO PRO HD from marti paradisis on Vimeo.

Christmas eve greeted us with 10 ft stern pits and sunny skies. what more could u ask for? How about santa having some time out to enjoy some tube time with the lads………

santa does shippies from marti paradisis on Vimeo.

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Stern Carnage from marti paradisis on Vimeo.

Some footage from a day last year. Shot by Ed Wearne www.shednine.com