Shipstern Bluff

This wave only breaks on high tide. It needs a south to south westerly swell direction. Best wind direction is northerly. The optimum swell conditions mostly happen around the colder months. When 'Shippies is pumpinngit can produce the largest waves arguably in the world. The faces go from 10ft-30ft+. The wave of shipsters is like a slab of water that has elevated above the ocean. There's basically another level of water that creates this wave. This is caused by the flatrock that comes from the shore, after it has come out about 25m out to sea, the flatrock drops 50m straight down, so when the massive cold water swells hit this shelf, there's no where for the water to go but up. Which creates the slab-like wave. Next which is unique to shipsterns is the steps in the wave. Having all that water mass compressed makes the wave form steps down the face of the wave, when there are strong winds these steps are made larger which creates the unmistakable wave of shipsterns. Big, scary, raw power, untamed. Many surfers rent or drive their own boats to the break while some still like to make the 4 hour return walk from Stormlea. This break has caught the attention of some of the best surfers in the world such as Andy Irons, and Kelly Slater. But even they were in awe of the shear wa5er mass of the wave.