Cape Solander is not a place to be taken lightly. When it’s working, it’s not safe. It is a place for helmets and padded wetsuits. It is a place that can kill or maim a surfer in the blink of an eye. Luckily, that doesn’t happen too often, mostly because surfing is one of those sports that generally regulates itself. No one in their right mind will paddle out to Cape Solander if they’re not up to the task, and if they do, it’s likely someone will let them know that they shouldn’t be out there. And if there isn’t a someone around to let them know… well, the wave will do it in a less-gentle fashion.
The video you see here comes from the camera of Tim Bonython, purveyor of some of the finest surfing footage on the internet. He’s a guy who is obsessed with giant waves, and Cape Solander is nothing if not that. It’s the final installment of a series featuring Dylan Longbottom, but he’s not the only madman included.
“Here we go… the final chapter,” Bonython wrote. “We’re back at Cape Solander, and this time it goes FULL PSYCHO. After an all-time Solander run in part one Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca and Lucas Fink return for the final installment — but what they’re met with is a completely different beast. Part one was perfect. Clean lines. Dream barrels. Part 3… is chaos.”
Bonython’s been around a lot of big waves, but Cape Solander is special, even among the biggest and best of those waves. And when it gets hairy there, it gets really hairy.
“The ocean turned volatile,” Bonython said about the day in question. “Backwash detonated when coming off the rocks. And the Cape morphed into one of the most unpredictable and dangerous slabs I’ve ever filmed. This was next-level craziness! Massive backwash explosions. Waves folding in on themselves. And wipeouts so heavy boards were snapping like twigs.”
Many surf videos you see are a little deceiving. Surfing requires wipeouts. It’s impossible to get good at surfing without falling a lot, and the more you fall, the better you get at doing it. Most surf videos don’t show the wipeouts — except maybe in a compilation — but this one does. And the wipeouts at Cape Solander on a big day are about as bad as they get.
“One of the heaviest moments of the day saw Chumbo take a brutal wipeout, getting rag-dolled and rolled across the rocks — a harsh reminder that out here, there’s zero margin for error,” Bonython remembered. “This session feels like a continuation of my “Terror Vault” series — raw, violent, and completely unforgiving. For this edit, I shot from a different angle — my favorite water perspective — putting you right in the impact zone, where you can feel every surge, every explosion, every consequence.
Aside from Longbottom, Chumbo, and Fink. Max McGuigan, Kipp Caddy, Justin “Jughead” Allport, and Hughie Vaughan were all there too, pushing their limits about as far as they could go. All in the name of a few good waves.
