This Cape Solander session looks outright apocalyptic—and you’ll understand why in the first 10 seconds.
“Are you paddling for this? Me neither.” Photo: YouTube / We Bodyboard
Drone pilot Shaun Petersen quietly sat on this full-session footage for nearly a year before finally releasing it through the We Bodyboard YouTube channel. The wait? Absolutely worth it.
The clip captures Cape Solander—known to locals simply as “Ours”—at its most violent. Towering, heaving walls of ocean detonate over shallow reef while Australia’s most committed big-wave chargers scratch into bombs that look more like extinction-level events than rideable waves. The aerial perspective makes it even more gut-wrenching: you see the scale, the spray, the sheer tonnage of water collapsing with thunderous force.
Full session: “THIS IS INSANE!! BIGGEST CAPE SOLANDER IN A DECADE!!” via We Bodyboard / Shaun Petersen
Jason Kempshall of the We Bodyboard channel summed it up perfectly:
“When this dropped into the inbox I was left in disbelief… to see the whole day from start to finish is something else! BOY was it worth the wait.”
He added the obvious disclaimer: “Only the bravest (and maddest) need apply!”
This isn’t content for anyone looking to replicate it. Cape Solander has hospitalized plenty of experienced watermen over the years, and this swell represents conditions where even elite chargers were questioning their life choices mid-paddle.
But from the safety of your screen? Pure, jaw-dropping spectacle.
