![The Inertia](https://www.theinertia.com/wp-content/themes/theinertia-2018/dist/images/favicon-surf.png?x25159)
Usually, wipeouts at Shipstern Bluff are pretty easy to predict. Someone lets go of the rope, and either that killer step shows up or it doesn’t. In most cases, a huge step means a huge wipeout–but there exceptions to the rule. Like this one, where James McKean found himself on an abnormally clean face at Tasmania’s most-feared wave. Everything looked perfect, right up until it wasn’t. McKean pulls into a tube of mammoth proportions, and just… disappears.