Following the release of Kipp Caddy’s debut surf film DESENSITISED, we’ve decided to release an old feature from Issue 594 of our mag which tells the story of one particular strike mission Kipp did to a remote South-Oz slab that almost ended in tragedy. The story is just one of many that Kipp will have given that he’s usually front and centre for every XL swell in Ausralia.
These are the types of adventures that require hours of hard work and it is that graft that translates in his new film which shows just how hard Kipp charges.
Check out part two of the feature below. We released part one earlier this week and you can read that by clicking here.
The lensman: Sam Venn
Sometimes shooting water is like wildlife photography – how close to the big, sharp-toothed animal do you want to get before the risk outweighs the reward? Sam Venn is no stranger to swimming with twisted lumps that jack violently over shallow ledges. He lives around the corner from Cape Solander and regularly takes a dip there with camera in hand. “Cape’s like, my back backyard,” he explains over the phone. “That’s where I’ve gotten a lot of heavy water experience, swimming around and copping big ones on the head.”From Solander, you can see the Sydney high-rises. An offshore shelf surrounded by deep water, in a remote part of South Australia posed an entirely different challenge. “I guess out there (Solander) you just think you’re gonna get washed up on the rocks, where as here (pictured) you think you’re gonna drown.” Right before Sam swam out he’d been on the cliffs and photographed Dylan Longbottom getting pressed on pinnacles of rock. Sam wanted to shoot with a fisheye lens, which would have required him to swim even close to the imploding 10-15ft sets, but Kipp Caddy eventually convinced him that the 50ml rig was a more prudent option.Dylan played his injury down, and Sam had no idea he’d punctured a lung, but as he leapt into the turbulence he knew it was a serious undertaking…
“I’ve been there once before but nothing like this, this was a whole new level. This is like the biggest heaviest waves I’ve probably ever seen… I always had the idea to swim and then it came to the time and I was gonna swim out with Summa and Chris Bryan and then everyone was kind of like dilly dallying and I was getting a wriggle on… I just had to do it, to put the suit on, walk down the cliff and just get out there….They just whipped in and grabbed me, which was super lucky so that I didn’t have a full-on swim out, which I was so grateful for… they dropped me in the lineup and it was like nothing else. I was kind of battling with these boils. At one point it was like I was in a wrestling match, I was just getting pulled under the water and yanked side to side by these boils. No control, like it was so challenging to stay in position…
The scariest moment probably was, like after five minutes of being out there, this fucking rogue one just came at me, maybe the only one that washed through the whole channel that day. I remember seeing it just motoring. And I’ve had a really scary incident like this down inVictoria at Luna’s. I nearly drowned. I got three 15-footers on the head that just washed through the whole channel. I had that playing on my mind and it was kind of happening again. I was like, ‘f%k, here we go, like am I gonna drown?’ The white-wash came at me and I swam as deep as I could and equalised as much as I could. I would have been so deep underwater, by the time this thing rolled over me, you know, just like dodging these big clouds and just hoping for the best and trying to stay as relaxed as possible, and I popped up and thank God there wasn’t another one after it. But it gave me time to just swim back out a little bit and get into position again.
There was just these 10-15ft bombs just unloading in front of me and like I was hooting and watching these empties and waiting for the guys to tow in. At first I kind of didn’t fully link up with Kipp, and then I kind of got the groove and then found the spot I needed to be in and was sitting there. And then he got that one mega one, and he came off the back andI looked at him and we were just cheering. Like it was just one of those all-time moments in the water. We just kind of knew that we’d linked up and everything we’d gone for had just been blown out of the water and was like way better than weever expected.
Sam on Nathan Florence
Nathan got on the rope, and I was kind of in that same spot where I found was the right distance to be in with the lens I had on… I think it was maybe the first one, it just pretty well landed on my head.
There’s photos and video footage of Nathan doggy-dooring it at the end. But that literally landed on top of me. I still shot for as long as I could. And then I just kind of yanked the camera underwater and just dove as deep as I could. But luckily, it’s just a big kind of shelf with real deep water off the side. I’ve done a couple of trips with Nathan so we’re familiar with each other and it’s always super exciting. He’s such a legend and has such a good sense of humour. That big day was his birthday. We had a birthday cake for him up on the rocks and I lit his candles for him and we sung him happy birthday after this crazy day. Chris (filmer Chris Bryan) bought him a pickle; he figured all Americans love pickles, right. We put it in the middle of the cake and it was pretty classic.” “He’s such a talented guy, and him and Kipp together, they’re just pushing each other. And it’s really cool to see when they’re absolutely going for it. When they’re in the lineup together, they’re just kind of trying to outdo each other and tow the bigger waves and paddle the bigger waves. It’s impressive.”
Kipp on Noah Hassett
He’s one of the groms at Stern. And we hung out down at Shippies a week before and started talking about it in the car park and then he was blowing up my phone out like, ‘What’s going on are you going?’ I’m like if you want to come, just come to the airport at this time and you’re on. He came and it was so big, and he was all bummed he didn’t paddle any and I’m like, ‘dude, like, do you see what’s going on out there?’ It’s all good. Like he’s just so fired up on paddling.
Sam on Noah Hasset
By the time I’d shot Kipp and Nate, it had been a couple of hours in the water. They came in and then Noah grabbed the rope and he just went crazy. He just got like six in a row. And they’re all like proper, proper nuggets. And everyone’s just hooting from the land for him. He’s the only one out there. No one’s paddling. It’s just him and the ski driver and Summa on the back actually watching. He was loving every moment.
He’s 17 and he just got his P’s. He brought his P-Plates along to help out on the drive, but we didn’t let him behind the wheel. Essentially, you’re making sure he gets back alive. It’s on us. His Mum and dad were on the phone to him everyday though. And I think they had a little air tag on him or something because they could see where he was at all times. And it was funny. One day they messaged him and said, ‘Someone’s got a lead foot’ because I think they had some app and could see how fast he was actually going.We were on the highway in the desert and were going pretty quick.
Kipp on Summa
“Summa didn’t surf the first day… It was just kind of like, there wasn’t any room for error. And being on her backhand and her first time we’re like, maybe you should surf tomorrow morning, it’s going to be a bit more manageable. So we kind of just made the call. She went out on the ski and had a little look around to see what was going on and got a feel for it.I mean, if it was up to her she probably would have surfed.
There’s been such a good team around her in the sense of like, picking the eyes out of the conditions, picking the right window and kind of just trying to make something that’s really dangerous, as safe as possible. And watching her just get confidence over the last six months has been pretty insane.
