I met Nick Nairn Smith in Scotland this winter charging some heavy slabs with his mate Rory. Solid guys. This is an edit from his home in Tassie…
There was frost in the car park at 5am as I began the hour long walk into Shipsterns Bluff.
With my head torch lighting the track, I could hear a huge southerly swell colliding with the rugged cliffs of Cape Raoul 45 minutes away from my destination. On arrival Shipsterns was maxing with 12-15ft lumps of ocean buckling their way down the reef.
It was a session that appeared to slip under the radar leaving only the core Tasmanian local crew to test themselves against one of the largest Stern swells to hit our shores so far in 2014.
I filmed all day, my fingers were so numb by the end of my stint filming water I could barely press down on the record button of my camera housing. The fire was appreciated when I found myself back on the shore defrosting. It’s a long clip but worth watching to the end for Sam Lennox’s outrageous paddle effort & Shaun Wallbank’s mega step tow.
