“I Was Just Stuck In This Big Energy Ball Getting Recycled”

Made in partnership with Rip Curl.

Kipp Caddy’s injured. Pulled into a pit at Shippies, went too high, had to straighten out. The result? A three-wave, 40-second hold down and a partial hamstring tear. “It was kinda gnarly. I’ve been out for a month now. One more and I should be sweet again,” he explained nonchalantly, still steaming from some rehabilitative leg pressing.

Since April, which was spectacular on Australia’s east coast, it’s been a pretty sleepy run of swell heading into winter. Fortunately for Kipp, it’s made it a little less torturous to watch from the sidelines. “Nowhere’s been that crazy… maybe just Teahupo’o.”

He’s not wrong. The Tahitian reef pass almost killed Tom Lowe for the second time a few weeks ago. Otherwise, the viral XXL clips have been few and far between.

Cape with Friends drops almost a year to the day after Desensitized — Kipp’s immersive, Chris Bryan-shot 20-minute film tracing the arc from blonde-locked grom to broad-shouldered 6’4” shallow water samurai. Back then, he told Stab the plan was to move toward more compact, bite-sized projects. One swell. One zone. Sharper cadence. 

And he’s done just that. 

This particular swell, shot back in April, saw waves breaking in Sydney that would’ve turned heads on the North Shore of Oahu. Solander was its epicentre, and saw celebrity drop-ins from the likes of Nathan Florence and The Mad Hueys, mixed in with the 30-odd pack of underground chargers from Cronulla to Maroubra. 

There were the usual suspects: Flintoff, McGuigan, Vaculik… but also a few little weeds forcing their way into the best-on-field conversation. None more so than Kash Brown, who made an especially solid case with his icey tail-drops and stand-talls.

“It was looking pretty historic in the lead up,” Kipp explained. “Almost Cape Fear conditions the year Russ [Bierke] won. It did fire, but reading the charts leading into it, I thought it would go a little bigger and better than what it was. The first day was kind of too washy and tide affected. So the majority of the clip is the second day, when it dropped back a bit, and it was just a super fun paddle day.”

Kipp, who lives down the road and made his first Cape cameo at 14, says it’s interesting how the Solander lineup has changed in the 20 years since Koby Abberton and bros banned the OG boogs and declared it Ours.

“You can get solo sessions out there when it’s absolutely firing — then other times, you know it’s going to be good and 30 or 40 guys show up. It’s funny Solander…” he pauses. “You’ve just got this crazy cross-section of local kids, old boys like Fletch Haylar still sending it at 50, Bra Boys, boogs and Cronulla crew all mixed in. And the crazy thing is, it works. The crowd kind of polices itself. It’s pretty organized — no one’s acting too macho, which is rare. Everyone knows each other, the vibes are good, and there’s a clear hierarchy. Plus, the older crew actually want to see the kids get sick waves. Like, Kash [Brown] probably had the best one of the day.”

I’ll repeat that again. Boogs = back.

“Jack Baker (boog) probably got the best wave of the whole swell. The cool part is there are two or three different kinds of waves out there. The bodyboarders sit deep and take the shorter, steeper ones that don’t really suit a surfboard. And the surfers are chasing the ones with a little chip-in — just enough to get to the bottom before it completely bottoms out.”

Also surprising: Kipp reckons it’s one of the few waves where getting whipped in can actually be harder than paddling.

“With paddle, yeah, the drop’s gnarlier, but if you stick it and pull up, you’re automatically in the sweet spot. With towing it can be really hard to get in the spot — especially when it gets to that size where paddling’s not even an option anymore.”

Interestingly, Caddy reckons you can get away with your standard shorty.

“It’s one of the only slabs where a regular shortboard actually works better. Anything too long won’t fit the curve — you’ll just end up poking. I’m nearly 6’4″, and I ride a 6’0″ out there. Bit of volume under the chest, nothing too tech or tricked out. You don’t want a big airdrop — just enough to stick it and go straight into the barrel. Everything happens fast, so the board needs to be lively.”