Kipp Caddy on the ride of his life (so far) Photo: Chris Bryan
Desensitized is the debut film from Australian big-wave charger Kipp Caddy. Early on, the film flashes back to one of his formative moments – a trip to Shipstern Bluff when he was only 14 years old. The movie eventually ends with a jaw-dropping ride of a lifetime at the same spot, 10 years later. The rest of Desensitized explores Caddy’s journey between those two moments, centering around three iconic Australian waves that have defined his career.
We caught up with Kipp during a brief interregnum between surf trips to ask him about his experiences growing up in Australia’s most fearsome waves.
What was it about your early surfing life that prepared you for even considering going to a break like Shipstern when you’re 14?
I grew up on a small farm just near the coast and I actually grew up riding horses. I was quite a competitive rider and used to compete and also break horses.
There’s something in those early days of being around horses – falling off and just getting back on them. There’s some similarities in the sense that you wipeout on a big wave and you can’t let that fear take over and stop you doing it. The best way to move on from a big wipeout is to just get straight back out there.
Did you realize what you were getting into when you paddled out?
Absolutely not. The further you go into surfing big waves and experiencing these different breaks and different styles of wave, you start to realize how dangerous it actually is. But I feel like a lot of people’s best waves actually come from being naive and not realizing what they’re getting themselves into.
On that first trip – another point in the movie when you were just 13 at Cape Solander – was there any debate about whether you even should go or not?
I think there was probably a lot of debate between the people that already surfed the wave. It’s not that they said anything, but they were probably wondering why a 13-year-old kid was out in a 15- to 20-foot lineup. Then a couple of the older, experienced guys, who had been at Jaws and surfed a lot of breaks, took me under their wing and kind of just looked after me on that first session.
I was probably realistically a little out of my depth. You can see in the film, when I’m quite young, I was probably surfing above my years, but I didn’t have the weight to be able to kind of execute and keep the forward momentum on the waves. I was just too light, so the wave was sucking me up the face. But the way I was actually reading them was probably a little beyond my years.
Photo: Mark Bramley
Learning on that wave when you’re a kid and don’t have the same power, do you think that helped when you became an adult?
Oh, for sure. I feel like the skill was there, I just didn’t have the weight. But what it did do was put me in some pretty precarious situations. I received, probably to this day, some of my worst beatdowns, but it really gave me the confidence that I could do it and it was something that I was capable of.
What is the worst wipeout that you’ve had?
One of them was definitely that first beat down at Cape Solander. It’s actually not in the film, because it wasn’t shot, but I got a two-wave holddown. I popped up just before the third wave, and it put me on top of the whole rock platform there, so that was probably the most memorable beatdown of my life. Surviving that was just like, “Well, can’t really get much worse than this.”
Did you get hit in the head with a board at one point in the movie? It’s kind of hard to see, but it looks like it.
Yeah. That’s actually probably the worst wipeout that I’ve had. The board was an eight-five, and one of my friends just got caught out of position. It’s very hard to duck dive a board in that situation and basically the board came and hit me in the side of the head.
I got knocked out from it and the board actually snapped in half. Whilst I was unconscious, the leash pulled my leg above my head and I actually received a 30 centimeter hamstring tear. I feel like that tearing of the hamstring actually triggered my brain to become conscious again. So, kind of a catch-22, but I’m very grateful, because that situation could have been a lot worse.
You mean the pain from it brought you back online?
I think so, yeah. I reckon the tearing of it just triggered my brain. That was a crazy experience.
At the end of the movie, you say that even after all these years of searching, you’re still looking for a certain wave out there. What is that wave?
I’m definitely starting to get really excited on pushing myself in the paddle realm. It’s just waiting for those perfect days, perfect conditions, and just pushing yourself deep and seeing what’s achievable.
Obviously in the film, there’s some waves of a lifetime, but I feel like I want to take what I’ve done at these three breaks that are featured in the film and take that to a more global scale. I want to throw my hat in the ring with the best guys around the world and see how I fare up.
What breaks around the world that you haven’t been to yet are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to spending some time in Ireland. I guess a lot of the big name kind of locations that are already on the map, just to show that I can mix with some of the best guys in the world.
There’s definitely a want to go and find new waves as well. Kind of do my own thing and find some breaks. Maybe not put locations on the map, but show some of the other big slabs that maybe don’t get any attention. There’s a lot of waves, especially in Australia, that just aren’t getting surfed.
Would you call the wave the movie ends on the best of your life, so far?
Oh, that’s a wave of a lifetime. There were at least three moments where I felt like I was falling off and just absolutely in a tug of war with the wave. Some kind of energy just kept pushing me to where I needed to be. I was kind of in disbelief that I actually made it.
You can probably see, too, when I land off the step, the foamball just engulfs me, then pushes me where I need to be. Then it pushes me up high on the wave and the wave grabs me again. For the whole ride, it was just so intense. It’s going to take something pretty serious to get a wave better than that.
You were riding blind at the end of it, right?
Yeah, completely. I was just pulled up high and with all the spray and spit I couldn’t see anything. I was just completely relying on feel. I reckon that’s that 10 years of going there every swell and feeling what it feels like to ride out the end. I was just relying on all my senses and it’s kind of a freaking miracle it actually just let me out at the end of it.
Photo: Mark Bramley
When you were on the wave, did you have a sense of, “Oh my God, this is like the best wave I’ve ever ridden?” Or did it all hit you afterwards?
A lot of the time, when you’re towing into big waves, it’s hard to get a gauge on how big a wave is. As soon as we bobbed over the back, it was so clear that it was probably the best wave that I’d been towed into.
I had Russel Bierke driving me and he positioned me so unbelievably well. I was down the bottom of the wave to start with and I was like, “Oh, this is one of those dream big south ones that just doesn’t even step out.” Then, within literally less than half a second, it was just the biggest step under me, because it drew me back up the face. The ski driving was so good that it kind of lured me into a false sense of security.
Before I knew it, I was just in the channel. I couldn’t speak for probably 30 minutes to an hour after that. I just didn’t even have any words to say. It was such a crazy, euphoric feeling.
That’s what I think is so incredible about being able to ride those waves. When the steps happen and you’re basically doing a second drop.
When you start surfing the wave, it’s probably the thing you fear the most. Then after 10 years of surfing, it’s the thing I look forward to the most.
People don’t like the big period down there because the step does get super intense, but it’s literally what drives me. It makes me so excited, just the thought of catching that perfect wave, airing the step, landing and transitioning into a barrel. I don’t know if surfing gets any more technical than that.
What’s next for you?
I’m looking forward to heading over to Europe for the end of this year and just tapping into their season. I feel like it’s such a good momentum builder, and it’s actually what I did before I caught that wave the last time at the end. Just got really comfy over there because the waves are just constantly massive.
Then I look forward to putting in a good amount of time in for the Hawaiian season, and then we’re looking kind of back to Australia in slab season. So for me, it’s just like kind of bouncing wherever winter goes.
