The most photogenic big wave, Shipstern Bluff, or ‘Shippies’ sits below a spectacular cliff, shaped unsurprisingly like a ship’s stern. Facing into the mighty Southern Ocean it is regularly massive in the southern hemisphere winter, but it is rarely surfable.
When the conditions come together though it is a very special wave with a ‘step’ in the face which needs to be navigated prior to the big wave surfer getting a huge tube. It’s this added extra and the fact that it’s just so photogenic that has propelled ‘Shippies’ into the big league of big wave surfing.