Kelly Slater surfs shipsterns Bluff

Check out this great link from the Mock with piccies and vids of shippies action.  http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2010/04/17/140491_todays-news.html
SHAUN WALLBANK, The Mercury, April 17, 2010 07:30am
NINE-TIME world surfing champion Kelly Slater surfed Tasmania's Shipstern Bluff for the first time yesterday.

The cool conditions were an obvious change for the American who spends most of his time in the warm waters of Hawaii and Indonesia.
"It's quite cold, I actually didn't think it would be this cold but I'm glad the sun's out," he said.
Donning a thick wetsuit and rubber booties Slater paddled into the lineup and sat with a local crowd for a brief period before stroking into his first wave.
He took off on the critical part of the wave as it jacked up beneath him, but made the ride look easy as he swept along the face and into the barrel. Coming out the end and into the channel the man widely respected as the best surfer who has ever lived, let out a hoot of relief at escaping his ride unharmed.
"It felt good to get a wave, it actually warmed me up," he said.
It wasn't all perfect rides though as he fell victim to the jaws of Shipstern on more than one occasion.
On one wave he paddled in deeper than usual and raced to get through the barrel only to come out body surfing along the face before cartwheeling over the lip.
"That one held me down for a while," Slater said.
It's not the first time Slater has visited Tasmania having racked up numerous trips to King Island and the North-West, but Shipstern had before now eluded him.
The world renowned reef break has turned on a handful of times in the last few weeks and with a break between the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach (which Slater won) and the Santa Catarina Pro in Brazil, Slater thought it time to swoop.
Surfing Tasmania former president Paul Richardson said it was a great thing for local surfing and the state as a whole.
"You know you've got a world-class surf break in your own back yard when the best surfer in the world, who follows good surf around for a living, turns up at the break."