Red Bull Cape Fear returns to Shippies

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
Swellnet Dispatch

This year Red Bull Cape Fear will return to Shipsterns Bluff.

First run at Cape Solander in 2014 and then followed up in 2016 with hardly-ridable twelve-foot slabs at the Cape, the event then moved south to Shippies in 2019. Nathan Florence won that instalment, which was run in waves barely worth of the name Cape Fear.

With an extended waiting period, organisers will be hoping for a southern version of the 2016 contest.

Jughead on one of the better waves of the 2019 Cape Fear event. Jug returns again this year.

Because of COVID, the field is exclusively Australian, with 11 of the 24 invitees from Tasmania. Other surfers include perennial crowd favourites Jughead Allport and Laurie Towner, plus 2016 winner Russ Bierke, while ex-CT surfers Mick Fanning and Laura Enever are also in the draw.

Enever joins three other women - Lizzie Stokely from Tas, and Felicity Palmateer and Laura Macaulay, both from WA - to surf the event.

There are 24 invited surfers yet the format is five heats of four surfers (i.e 20 surfers). Whether the women run separately or organisers are expecting four surfers not to make it is unclear.

The contest window opens on March 15th with competitors receiving a 48 hour notice from when the contest gets the green light.

The full list of competitors are as follows:

  • Mick Fanning (QLD) 
  • Russell Bierke (NSW) 
  • Ryan Hipwood (QLD) 
  • Justen Allport (NSW)
  • Joel Parkinson  (QLD)
  • Kieren Perrow (NSW) 
  • Mark Mathews (NSW) 
  • Laurie Towner (NSW)
  • Kipp Caddy (NSW) 
  • Dean Morrison (NSW) 
  • Mikey Brennan (TAS) 
  • Danny Griffiths (TAS)
  • James Hollmer-Cross (TAS)
  • Tyler Hollmer-Cross  (TAS)
  • James McKean (TAS) 
  • Kelly Nordstrom (TAS)
  • Marti Paradisis  (TAS)
  • Benn Richardson  (TAS)
  • Shaun Wallbank (TAS) 
  • Alex Zawadzki (TAS)
  • Laura Enever (NSW)
  • Felicity Palmateer (WA)
  • Laura Macaulay (WA) 
  • Lizze Stokely (TAS)

Comments

ryder's picture
ryder's picture
ryder Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 9:00am

Can we expect Mark Visser to drop from the sky on a jet ski this event?

Plasticspastic's picture
Plasticspastic's picture
Plasticspastic Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 9:53am

Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time....
Is mark visser still a big wave surfer?? Have not see much footage of him.. ever.. what’s he up to??

Jono's picture
Jono's picture
Jono Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 10:35am
mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207 Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 10:26am

Assuming its towboarding only or are the "athletes" going to have to actually paddle themselves over the ledge?

Pops's picture
Pops's picture
Pops Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 11:36am

If it's a paddle event, Bierke's gotta be a shoo in? Remember that footage of him paddling waaaay deep behind the step!

ryder's picture
ryder's picture
ryder Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 10:48am
Bob Sacamano's picture
Bob Sacamano's picture
Bob Sacamano Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 10:54am

Points should be awarded for backflip dismounts and foamball gymnastics. I think its a wave where the theres not many clean exits, but its certainly not short of entertainment and charging.

Trentslatterphoto's picture
Trentslatterphoto's picture
Trentslatterphoto Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 3:25pm

so true mate if you do something funky at the end of a wave you should be rewarded.

frog's picture
frog's picture
frog Wednesday, 3 Mar 2021 at 10:59am

Needs a decent swell. Last one looked to have been held on a routine medium sized SW groundswell.

bipola's picture
bipola's picture
bipola Thursday, 4 Mar 2021 at 2:29pm

haven't really missed seeing the comps

gnomen's picture
gnomen's picture
gnomen Sunday, 7 Mar 2021 at 11:59am

Shipsterns is way more interesting to watch then Cape Solander imo. There is way more "completions" at Shippies than the Cape.