"It's a day by day thing," says Kipp Caddy about his approach to big Cape Solander. "Some days I'll grab the rope, some days I'm up for the challenge."

The challenge that Kipp's referring to is pushing the paddle frontier at a wave that, like Teahupoo, offers limited paddle entry over a certain size.

"You're definitely looking for a certain wave," says Kipp. "Not every set wave is going to be paddleable...some days you might only get one opportunity an hour."

On days like that, Kipp is constantly battling with himself. "You wait ages for those days to come around and then you're sitting in that lineup, waves are going underneath you and the tow crew are getting their wave count up."

There's no time for idle thoughts, however, as when that opportunity presents itself, every synapse must fire. "The wave comes onto the reef and stands up so quickly, it happens so fast, and you've got to position yourself and paddle hard."

"You've gotta be into it."

The wave is both short, a metre here or there is the difference between success and failure, and it's sudden. "It really is split-second timing between making it and getting folded."

"But that one paddle wave..." says Kipp savouring the thought. "It's worth a thousand tow waves."

"They're the ones you remember."

Kipp, who's 28 years old and recently won the Best Paddle Wave at the Peahi Challenge, surfed good size Cape a few times through autumn. The day shown in the video - shot and edited by good mate Cameron Staunton - was shaping up to be one of the best. "Looking at the forecast," says Kipp, "it had the potential to be historic."

"However, when the swell came through it was maybe a little bit too big for the direction."

"The majority of the film was shot on the second day when it dropped back down. So rather than be historic, I'd say it was just a pretty classic Cape day."