Sydney doesn’t trade in ruler-edged point breaks or long-period freight trains, but when the conditions align it offers something just as confronting – ledging slabs that break square over rock and leave little room for error.
During a recent run of pumping East Coast swell, Cronulla’s Cape Solander and Shark Island both came to life. Local charger Kipp Caddy scored sessions at each and they make up episode one of his new YouTube series ‘Slab Sessions’ – a running log which documents his fixation with psycho waves that unload onto shallow reef.
“Both of those waves are really challenging in very different ways,” he said. “Shark Island has a lot of curve in it and its super shallow. It doesn’t break anywhere near as often as Cape does and it needs a lot of stars to align for it to properly do its thing.”
The Shark Island session only lasted an hour due to a small tidal window. He said the conditions fell narrowly short of being in the ‘epic to all time’ category.
“It was so nearly perfect,” he said. “It probably hasn’t been really good out there since like 2017 but that came close. It needs so many ingredients to make it a perfect wave and even the chance to just score it is pretty special.
“There’s probably about 10 different types of waves out there that you can catch. You get the medium ones from the top of the point that just tube the whole way and then you get the ones where you roll in behind the huge end section. On its day its just like surfing a slabbing version of HTs.”
From there Kipp joined in the carnage at Cape Solander where six-to-eight foot tubing slabs detonated across a shallow rock shelf just meters away from the cliff.
“The barrel out there is like a time warp. The way it bends in front of the rock, on the right one, there is no other barrel like it.”
Romanticizing the reward is what keeps Kipp coming back but he believes the risks should not be downplayed.
“I think people forget just how gnarly it is. People just see clips on social media of everyone making these crazy tubes and they forget the consequences if you don’t make one. Social media has desensitized people to it all. Surfers put their lives at risk, upload their clips and then its forgotten about the next day.”
Kipp said the crowd was ‘out of control’ during the last Cape swell.
“It’s such an epic wave and I would never want to discourage people from surfing slabs but Cape is literally a triple black diamond run. I just think some people need to hone their skills at other waves before giving it a crack. I can snowboard a bit but I would never just turn up and go to the top of one of those runs straight away.”
He added: “It’s just about respecting the wave and what’s it capable of.”
One visitor who wasted no time figuring that out was big wave superstar Lucas ‘Chumbo’ Chianca. Fresh off the plane on his first trip to Australia, the Brazilian linked up with Dylan Longbottom and slotted straight into the Cape rhythm, along with a run of South Coast slabs.
“Chumbo has cat like reflexes and he froths so hard,” said Kipp. “He’s super adaptable so I wasn’t surprised when he took to the wave so quickly.”
For now, the swell has eased and Kipp’s back on land in Cronulla, waiting for the next pulse. If the East Coast keeps delivering, it won’t be long before he’s back throwing himself over the ledge. In the meantime, hit the link above to watch episode one of his slab sessions.
