Desensitised: Kipp Caddy's Search For The Perfect Ride
The documentary-style film follows Kipp’s heart-pounding, mind-bending search to see how far he can push himself in waves of consequence.
Kipp Caddy has grown up in heavy waves. At 13 he was charging outer reefs that most full-grown adults would only ride in their nightmares. Kipp has since made a career of chasing slabs all over the world, getting barrels and beatings galore. His debut surf film, DESENSITISED, follows that journey from here to now. Centering around three Australian breaks, where Kipp learned the mad craft of big-wave surfing, it’s a full circle look at how he got to where he is.
“Those three breaks have kind of shaped my career in a sense, especially Shipsterns,” says Kipp. “They’re all really fickle waves. They don't pump all the time, but when they do, they're as good as anywhere in the world on their day.”
Those initial sessions as a young teen are pretty wild to behold. He was thrown in the deep end, but had an uncanny knack of getting smashed and coming up smiling.
“It was quite a shock, those first few beat downs and how heavy it was. I guess you could almost say it was probably a little naive to how dangerous those situations were. But at the same time, it also gave me the confidence to realise that you can surf those waves and survive. It kind of taught me to relax in intense situations.”
Kipp took that confidence from his home breaks in New South Wales, down to one of Australia’s most iconic big waves, Shipstern Bluff, at 14. Normally, it’s an unwritten rule that you have to paddle the place before towing, but that first day he was let off the hook (kind of).
“I got myself a cheeky little loophole, just purely because the swell was so big, and it wasn't paddleable for anybody,” laughs Kipp. “It was still one of the biggest days I've ever seen at Shipsterns. I remember just sitting on the boat and so clearly watching people like Marty Paradisis and Tyler Homer-Cross catching these crazy 20 foot waves. It was unfathomable. I couldn't kind of believe what was going on. It just didn't seem real."
Fast forward a decade and Kipp is now one of the guys catching those bombs. Desensitised ends with what is Kipp’s wave of a lifetime so far. It’s almost like you can see 10 years of trials and tribulations crushed into 10 seconds of adrenaline.
“That whole journey just hit me at once, I felt so out of body,” says Kipp. “I couldn't believe what just kind of transpired. I think I sat on the ski for at least an hour, just completely speechless. Like I had a smile from one ear to the other and I physically couldn't talk. I feel like every single wave I'd ever caught up until that point, every person who had helped me along the way, had led to that one moment. It just kind of all came out once I fell into the water on the end of that.”
Of course, this is just the beginning for Kipp. He now lives a full-tilt version of The Search, scouring weather maps, chasing swells and pin-pointing places to hit when they’re going to be perfect. You can follow his adventures on his Instagram and Youtube Channel.
First, though, watch Desensitised. If it doesn’t blast you out of a complacent state of life, we’re not sure what will. The film debuts at Hoyts Cronulla on July 18th, followed by a launch party at Fatboy Factory in Cronulla on July 20th. For tickets, head here.
