Kipp Caddy: Lost And Found At Jaws

He's surfed every serious slab around Australia, now Kipp Caddy - who's 27-years old and comes from Ulladulla by way of Cronulla - is spreading his wings. A recent trip to Maui saw him both paddle and tow Jaws, a wave he considers "the pinnacle of big wave surfing."

During the trip he saw the largest waves he's ever witnessed and made progress solving the puzzle that is the Jaws lineup.

Swellnet spoke to Kipp upon his return.

(Keep an eye out for Tim Bonython's edit from the sessions in question.)

Swellnet: Where are you at the moment?
Kipp Caddy: Just got back home to Australia. I should still be in Hawaii while the swell is going there.

Yeah, it's been the most amazing run of swell that I can remember, and the forecast shows they've got another two weeks to come.
I think there's more after that too, from what I'm seeing. It's probably going to keep going.

Craig Brokensha, our main forecaster, has been analysing why it's happening and it appears, at least in part, due to cold air coming off Siberia meeting crazily warm water off Japan.
Yeah, okay. Got you. The snowboarders are pumped. They'll be scoring in Japan as well.

Craig loves his snow, so he's pretty good at doing mountain forecasts. For our sake though, the cold air meeting hot water is fuelling the swell engine off Japan so every few days a new swell is being sent towards Hawaii.
I remember the last time we had a big Jaws swell and Japan also got a massive dump. So you could have snowboarded in Japan and then surfed in Hawaii on the same system.

...and then followed it across to Mavericks.
Yeah, get the triple. That's the deal.

(Tim Bonython)

Tim currently has a clip on Jaws and you have a few waves in it. Was that your first trip to Maui?
It's actually my second trip to Maui.

Right. Was it your first paddle attempt there?
Nah, I had one other paddle wave, on a similar west swell, and I got halfway down the wave and it just closed out so I jumped off.

So realistically, they were my first properly ridden waves at Jaws, yeah.

You've surfed big waves all around Australia, is this the next step?
Yes. I've enjoyed building my skills while surfing all these slabs around Australia. It's been epic, and while it's a different style of surfing, I wanted to take it to the next level and I guess Jaws is the pinnacle of paddling in big wave surfing.

You're no stranger to big thick waves. How does Jaws compare?
For me, the thing is that I don't have much experience riding boards over seven foot or so - which is what I'd normally ride at Depot. So it's just a whole new learning curve in the sense that you've got to squeeze a long board - I was riding a 9'8" at Jaws - into the pit. You've also got to draw those lines which are completely different; there's so much rail in the face.

So it's not so much that the waves are out of my comfort zone, but just the style of surfing was very foreign to me.

You were still able to pack one very big barrel..?
Yeah, I was just so stoked when I dropped into that wave. Everything happened as it was meant to: I was where I wanted to be on the reef when that wave came through. I guess there was kind of a bit of luck involved, but it all came together.

You mentioned you were where you wanted to be. It's a big playing field, are you comfortable out there?
I had a session on the first day and I didn't really catch a wave. The reason was because I just wasn't comfortable in the lineup. I had no idea where I was. If you get it wrong, you're getting cleaned up. Like, I paddled around for seven hours, didn't catch one wave, and I was essentially just lost at sea.

Frustrating as it is, do sessions like that give you a feel for the lineup?
Yeah. You see the guys that put time in there, they know how to read it so well. As you mentioned earlier, it's a massive playing field, and the guys that put time in there, they know where on the reef they can be, and where they can't be. I guess that first seven hours of just paddling around was me sort of figuring that out.

Looking back, I didn't even get close to catching a wave. I was just so out of position.

But you would've got a good view of the action?
Yep, let me tell you too, from watching footage compared to actually being in the lineup and seeing what's going on, it's just so much crazier in real life. The way people are swinging on waves, and dropping into them, the footage does zero justice to that.

Also, when you're actually out there, the wave is breaking on an angle, which you can't really tell from in the footage. But it breaks on an angle with a north peak and a west bowl, so you can be pretty far in on the west bowl, and if you are out of the bowl, you're not going to get caught. But if you are out on that north peak, and a big set comes through, you can find yourself in a lot of trouble, really quickly.

When you say at an angle, do you mean like the right hander bends at you..?
Yeah, but the whole wave is coming in, like I guess it's almost parallel to the cliff, so it's like a big soup bowl. So that north peak breaks and then it bends into that west bowl. But basically, when you're sitting out there the waves coming almost, not quite parallel to the shore, but it's not coming straight towards the shore, which you can't really gauge from the footage.

For years, I remember looking at footage shot from above the gulch there, and I thought it was giving me a good read of the wave. It wasn't until drone footage became popular and I realised that points of the reef that I thought were close together are actually a fair way apart.
Yeah, so true. I think the best angle you can get to gauge distance and size is that back angle shot from the left. You know when they shoot across the lineup and you can see the land in the background?

Yep. 
It's such a trippy angle. That gives you a good perspective of the way it's working. But the playing field is giant out there, and depending on where you are positioned, yeah, you may be safe, or you can be in a lot of danger, and things can change really quickly out there.

Did you have any beatdowns out there?
This trip, none at all. I've had that one wipeout, on the paddle wave I mentioned that just closed out straight away. That one got me pretty good. But really, it was nothing compared to what you see out there, like two-wave hold-downs and stuff.

No comparison to Aussie waves..?
Russ Bierke described it as like a Depot beatdown, except four times as long and a bit more violent.

Do you think that somewhere like Depot is a good stepping stone though?
I think Depot is, in its own right, a psycho wave. Maybe you're not riding as big of board, but that thing is slabbing hard, and it's so quick. It's just really, really different.

That said, we have some spots here in Oz that, I guess, would be more similar to Jaws. Places like XXXX and XXXX.

Let's talk boards: You said you were on a 9'8", right?
Yep.

And a Pyzel?
A Pyzel. One of Nathan Florence's older boards, like the early ones.

And what about when you towed?
I was on a tow board that was only three to four kilos, which, even though it was as clean as Peahi gets, was nowhere near enough weight. I was just essentially going down the waves while looking a foot in front of my board - I was trying to hang on through all the bumps.

Whereas, if you had a heavier board, maybe you could surf the wave a bit rather than having the board just direct where you got to go.

What would be a good weight?
If I did it again, I'd have like a 10 kilogram board.

Board performance aside, how did the tow sessions feel?
Crazy. I mean, towing is really different to paddling - you're taking a lot of the danger and the risk out of it. It can still be really dangerous but you've got someone watching over you, positioning you, so you're not going to get caught out paddling around it.

But it's just crazy dropping into waves of that size. Paddling you can get lost in the lineup, towing you can get lost on the wave: not understand how deep you are, how wide you are, knowing where the lip is going to land. It's so much ocean and it moves so quickly.

I guess when you let go of the rope you don't know how big it's going to be?
You can see coming into them though, a giant mass of water. But when you're letting go of the rope, it's more about trying to figure out what pace the wave is moving and where it's going to break.

Like, when I was letting go of the rope, I thought I was committing to them pretty deep, yet when I look back at the photos I could have been way deeper again.

I guess people that have surfed it a lot more would have a great understanding. I've got a better understanding now from having spent some time out there.

(Tim Bonython)

Any particular surfers that impressed you?
Oh yeah, there was some local crew, like Ty Simpson was probably the standout on the tow. Standout paddlers probably Albee Layer, Torrey Meister, Russell Bierke, the grom Steve Roberson. 

I ran a photo of Benjamin Sanchez as our Wave Of The Day this morning and it's got to be one of the biggest waves I've ever seen out there.
I've been around big heavy slabbing waves a lot, but I've never seen walls of water that big in my entire life. Like the Saturday was the biggest waves I've ever seen, and then it got to the tow day on Sunday and it was even bigger.

Did you see Benjamin Sanchez's wave? Were you in the water when that went down?
I was driving Tim for most of the day so I saw it all. But there was just so many crazy moments, and so many waves getting ridden, that it all just blended into one. But yeah, that was one of one of those big moments.

I haven't seen Tim's footage yet, but I've seen other footage from the land, and he just gets annihilated.
There was so much chaos happening, and so many waves in a set that you'd look at one wave, and then you'd be straight away looking at the next wave thinking, "Oh, my God. Here comes another another surfer dropping into another enormous wave." So much happened that you didn't even have time to process what was going on because it was just non-stop action.

I've never been in a lineup and seen so many waves break in a row. I remember sitting there with Tim, and at one point, it was about thirty minutes, and it felt like there was no lull in between sets.

Makes it hard to pinpoint a highlight.
It's hard. Yeah, I couldn't pinpoint what the best moment was throughout the day; there was so many moments.

I think someone said, leading into the swells, there was the biggest ever recorded reading from a satellite.

Yeah, 66 foot, and that wasn't even pointed towards Hawaii. That was pointed east towards the American mainland.
Yeah, I guess if Hawaii got a direct hit, I think Jaws would have been closing out the channel. I don't think there would have been a channel.

I read an Instagram post from one of the water rescue who mentioned how they went inside to rescue someone, and then had to get out of there quick smart because other ski riders were saying the channel is going to close out.
It was definitely threatening during that one set. I think if you could get a swell that same size, yet directly lined up with Jaws, it could close out that channel.

It's a big bay but a swell like that would make it feel small.
Yeah, the channel is massive but during that one set it started to not feel like a channel anymore. I don't know what happens if Hawaii got a direct hit from swell of that size. I'm not sure.

So what are your plans? Are you planning to go back again this season?
For sure. I think we're going to go back to Hawaii, probably within the next couple of weeks. Spend some more time there, whether it's at Jaws, or wherever it is. I'm just excited to surf over there, and I think I'll just pick the days at Jaws that look like they're going to be really good days.

I need to spend more time there on those bigger, cleaner days. Hopefully chase some bigger barrels.