Chilling with the locals

Nine times World Champ Kelly Slater finally got the opportunity to surf one of the world’s most dangerous waves yesterday and he didn’t disappoint. While conditions were far from epic Slater put on a show only he could leaving a lasting impression on the lucky few who witnessed it. Slater wasn’t the only fly-in for the session with the Bra Boys back shooting for their new film “Still Standing”.

The KING working his magic

The swell never reached it’s predicted 12-15ft but instead was small and inconsistent all day. Good waves were few and far between with Marti Paradisis, Mark Mathews and Sandy Ryan all noticeable stand outs in the water. Kelly nailed a couple of good paddle waves early before hanging on the rocks and chatting to the locals. After refuelling he  grabbed the rope and ended the session with a few nice tow waves. A full feature from Friday’s session will be published in the next few days including a great little hi-def video.

Local Charger Danny Griffith on a bomb

Blue skies and a light offshore breeze greeted a handfull of the worlds best freesurfers as they dusted off the summer cobwebs and charged head first into mutant 10-15ft caves. Shippies turned it on yesterday and provided a highlights reel the ASP and Bells organisers could only dream of. Rumors had Kelly Slater booked on a plane and ready to charge one of the world’s most challenging waves but at the last minute Bells organisers decided they might run round 3 leaving Kelly no choice but to stay in Melbourne.

The washing machine

The Bra Boys made the trip down to film a segment for their new film  and brought with them the high speed “Phantom”  video camera. This is the same camera quiksilver used to film the super slow-mo stuff of Kelly and Dane and should make for some pretty amazing footage. Check out the water shots from this session by clicking here. Stu Gibson nailed it and has put a few pics up on www.thecollective.net.au

Plenty of swell forecast for the next 10 days. Looks like a 4-5ft windswell early next week, a large, long-period groundswell after that and things are looking good for another bomb shippies swell sometime around the 16th.

Shippies looks as if it will be pumping today with a solid 10-12ft swell forecast. Plenty of pro’s making the trip from Bells  so this could be an epic little session. A large, long period swell filling in now with winds predicted to stay NE all day. A killer low tide is predicted early.

Today’s session will be covered live from shippies via twitter. There will be regular twitter updates via the sidebar widget or by visiting here http://twitter.com/shipsterns. Click on the link in each twitter post to view the images.