During this session at Shipstern Bluff, Dylan Longbottom got absolutely rinsed twice. On one, the 50-year-old Cronulla-based surfer and shaper towed in deep only to get ejected over a heinous four-foot whitewashed ledge, pin-dropping his way to the Tasman reef.
“It was so violent,” Longbottom told Vaughan Blakey on Ain’t That Swell. “I was underwater so long, into the rocks on the inside, then got pinballed on the rocks.”
But the wave he wrangled later reminded everyone why he’s been a grandfather of big-wave surfing for roughly three decades. On a much-hyped swell in April, Longbottom (with his 21-year-old daughter Summa in tow) arrived at the tip of Tasmania along with a host of other Australian chargers. It was a day that will live in the memory log (and SD cards): great conditions, square tubes and no shortage of slabbing steps.
It was the step that set up Longbottom for his best wave of the day (and an entree into the 2024 SURFER Big Wave Challenge). As he was under it at the bottom of the wave, his rail caught on the step, which slowed him down while pushing him high in the pocket. Not an ideal situation at Shipstern’s but Longbottom makes it work. Leaning hard onto his toe-side rail, he put complete faith in the board he built himself as a massive rectangle of water threw over him.
“The step and the boils kinda stopped me,” Longbottom said. “I had to regather myself. It pulled me up so high, but I pushed on my toe edge and trusted my board and my fins. I set my line, and my board just took off.”
It’s about as steep a wave you’ll see at the Bluff. Longbottom’s wave was a clear standout on a day full of remarkable tubes, and it’s a standout in the 2024 SURFER Big Wave Challenge.
Related: Father and Daughter Duo Share Some of Australia’s Heaviest Waves