Stab Podcasts

Epizody

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  Cocaine Spoons & Raw Cowabunga Spirit 19.08.2026 53min

  We could all use a little Yolanda in our lives. This week, Buck confronts Mikey C on his failed QS campaign. Then the boys chat Tahiti, EAST with Harry B, cocaine spoons, the best surf bikinis and more.
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  Kolohe Andino Is Sick Of Watching Surfers Eat Breakfast | StabMic Ep. 27 17.08.2026 1h 8min

  “Everyone’s trying to sell the core thing, so we actually went for corny.” Kolohe Andino and his brand, Steko, have a new surf film, Fudo, coming to theatres in late August, followed by a run of premieres before eventually landing on Stab Premium shortly thereafter. From the trailers and clips released so far, it’s clear a serious amount of effort has gone into making the thing: week-long setups for elaborate concept shoots, multiple international trips, a hired snake, and a deliberate move away from what Kolohe sees as an increasingly exhausted aesthetic — the Y2K-heavy, aggressively “core” fetishisation of surfing that has dominated the last five years or so. In its place is something Kolohe thinks surfing has lost, but which was abundant when he was coming up during the Joe G and Kai Neville era: style, artifice, mystique, and, above all, the simple biz of making surfers look cool. Fudo wears those influences openly, with the trailer borrowing liberally from the visual grammar and, in places, the actual concepts of those earlier films. Kolohe is upfront about the borrowing, seeing Fudo as a way to pump some air back into an old wheel he thinks has gone flat. Part of that, he argues, means giving surfers back a little mystique, rather than encouraging them to squeeze and share their lives into a vertical rectangle. Kolohe thinks brands have become too eager to merchandise the entirety of their surfers, and in doing so have diminished one of the things that made surfers compelling in the first place. The coolest surfers, in his mind, are the ones you can’t quite get your hands around, the ones who retain some fog around the edges, and certainly aren’t livestreaming the full record of their existence, a la Clavicular. It’s strange, then, to consider Kolohe’s progression: once-in-a-generation prodigy, pursued by every brand under the sun; top-five Championship Tour surfer who perhaps never quite satisfied the enormous expectations attached to his name; premature retiree from competitive surfing; and now brand owner, cultural critic and surfer-philanthropist, attempting to excavate the thing he fell in love with when he was a teenager. Jordy Smith joins Dooma as co-host, and the lads get into tour expectations, Kolohe putting millions of his own money into Steko, his final against Italo at D-Bah, the lingering brat reputation that followed him around the tour, his habit of putting fists through boards after losing, rookie-year Ethan Ewing thinking Kolohe was a pussy, and plenty more. Thanks to our partners at Red Bull, Vaer, Dome Dust, SlowTide, TurtleBox, and Devium, for making StabMic possible.
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  Kelly Combos Medina, Calls Out His Arch Nemesis 11.08.2026 51min

  Why did Kelly win that heat against Gabriel Medina? It wasn't for his thousands of fans, his young family, or even himself. It was for Ronnie Nelson. Let's drop in.
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  Mason Ho On Farming, Andy Irons, And The Day He Punched Kelly Slater | StabMic Ep. 26 10.08.2026 1h 55min

  For most non-human animals, if you think about it hard enough, you can place yourself inside their brains and assume their experience of the world based on their behaviour.  We observe, infer motivation, project our own experience onto theirs, and arrive at some rough approximation of an inner life. The further down the mammalian ladder you go, the easier this can seem. A small mammal wants food, wants sex, wants to avoid being eaten. A reptile might want much the same. Strip away the elaborate machinery of human society, and it’s not really all that different from our own lives, at the end of it all. If there is something it is like to be something, something we can relate to through our own experience, then bang, you’re in the territory of consciousness. Or so said Thomas Nagel in his 1974 essay, What Is It Like to Be a Bat? The essay became one of the foundational attempts to articulate the problem of consciousness: not simply what a brain does, but what it is actually like to be the thing possessing it. It is one of the enduring problems in the philosophy of mind, and one science has yet to put entirely to bed. But it’s 2026 now, and the literature is due for an update. Surely it’s about time someone wrote the follow-up:  What Is It Like to Be Mason Ho? One would imagine that, were we somehow able to peer directly into the subjective experience of Mason, to see the world, for a moment, as Mason sees it, the implications for our understanding of consciousness would be considerable. Is it like something to be Mason Ho? After watching this episode, it is difficult to say. What we can establish is that he is a gifted storyteller, and a particularly unusual one. In this episode, he touches on rubbing Andy Irons' face, punching Kelly Slater, forgetting his own age, his new passion for farming and how it has improved his surfing, being nice to judges even when he feels wronged by them, Jimi Hendrix, LSD, his dad and uncle, and much, much, much more. Saddle up. It's a long one, but to cut it down any further would be to interfere with the integrity of the anthropological record. Thanks to our partners at RedBull, Vaer, Dome Dust, SlowTide, and Devium, for making StabMic possible.
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  Hossegor Beach Cocaine Ep 1: Y2K to Infinity 08.08.2026 35min

  Remember when thousands of kilos of cocaine washed up on the shores of Hossegor, France, in the early 2000s, upending the entire surf community for years to come? Paul Evans does. In this Stab Premium podcast series, Paul speaks with dozens of people involved in southwest France's cocaine scandal and how it affected their no-longer sleepy surf village — and pro surfing as a whole. Episode 1 is available for free above. Episodes 2-4 will be available exclusively on the Stab Premium app, dropping every Friday starting on August 14. This is Hossegor Beach Cocaine.
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  A Wildcard May Just Win In Tahiti 07.08.2026 49min

  Stace G and Mikey C provide our Tahiti preview and picks, presented by Betonline.ag. Make your own picks here: https://www.betonline.ag/sportsbook/futures-and-props/surfing/surfing-events
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  Jamie O’Brien Doesn’t Believe Pro Surfers Are Core | StabMic Ep. 25 03.08.2026 1h 27min

  Who is JOB, really? One of the greatest surfers of his generation, for one. At Pipe, he’s right there in the best-ever conversation, on any respectable list. In terms of pure comfort at one of the deadliest waves on the planet, he’s the prize mattress in the showroom. Five stars, perfect lumbar support. He toys with Pipe like the reef beneath him is a foam pit rather than a death trap, riding colourful pool toys and soft tops through a place that has humbled generations of very serious adults. Naturally, he’s now selling his own soft-top brand, Fun Days Surf. If you’re going to spend your life doing something ridiculous, you may as well own the factory. Build a business around your bad habits. The venture marks a clean break from Catch Surf, the brand he helped build. Jamie gets into the split in this episode, and he has plenty to say about how it all unfolded. “Sometimes people forget about the value you bring to the brand,” he says. “When they forget about that, it’s time to forget about them.” And though it seems perfectly ordinary now, a grown man wandering down the beach, board under one arm, phone held high in the other, live-commentating one’s own existence, it wasn’t always this way. Jamie essentially invented surf vlogging. At one of the most intimidating, tradition-bound waves in the world, no less. Imagine the abuse he copped, paddling out with a camera pointed at his own face. Then again, it helps when you’re one of the best to ever surf the place. Genius affords a certain social licence. Jamie is also a vocal advocate for saying exactly what he thinks, and he’s refreshingly punchy here. He names his greatest Pipe surfers of all time, unpacks what really happened with Catch Surf, and argues that most people claiming to be “core” are still cashing cheques from surf brands, which by his definition at least, means they’re not core at all. Thanks to our partners at RedBull, Vaer, Dome Dust, SlowTide, and Devium, for making StabMic possible.
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  Why JJF Should Return In 2027 31.07.2026 59min

  Let's play a game of surf BINGO. Cards ready. This week Mikey and Buck touch on: - sharks - the WSL - the ISA - the Olympics - John Florence - the US Open - river surfing - stand-up paddling - beer - the deeper meaning of tuberiding Any winners yet?
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  From The Championship Tour To Louis Vuitton | Mikey February | StabMic Ep. 24 27.07.2026 1h 27min

  “Anyone who does surfing is going to do it in their own way.” “The WSL does it in their own way, Stab does it in their own way. Obviously Louis Vuitton is going to do it in their own way. It’s going to be extra and over the top.” The question, really, is not whether Michael February belongs in a Louis Vuitton campaign. The question is whether any other surfer make the whole proposition look quite so fabulous. When the images dropped online, Mikey clad in a magnificent yellow knit, clutching a man-purse, the surf world was, you might say, a little divided. Some lamented the death of core surfing. Others accused LV of appropriating surf culture, or of repackaging the cultural myth of the Hollywood surf movie through an entirely outsider perspective. Rushing to the defence of Mikey and the great French luxury conglomerate were the wizened souls of Evan Slater and Joel Tudor. “It is so wild to me all the shit talking going on about the recent LV surf fashion line,” wrote Joel. “Yall are some hypocritical barneys.” “Where were all these passionate ‘saviours of surf culture’ when licensing conglomerate @authentic acquired the souls of every major surf brand from the past 30+ years?,” wrote Evan Slater. “This is life after death, guys. Keep surfing and keep generously sharing the gifts of surfing with others. The rest will take care of itself.” A lot more yapping, back and forth, can be found in the comments here. Also in this ep: did Pharrell and Louis Vuitton rip off Vans? Dane seems to think the whole thing might be a marketing play, and a very smart one at that. The boys also talk team surf films, EAST, and check in with the Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup comp director, Harry Mann.
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  Special Guest: Albee Layer's Psychotic Shark Encounter 25.07.2026 1h 4min

  Albee Layer and Torrey Meister got water-herded by a shark in Maui, and he's still a staunch proponent of sharks' rights. The same can't be said at Fred Pawle — to some the star, to many others the villain of our currently-running Shark Week. Keep your ears peeled for a snippet of the Great Shark Debate inside. Also in this ep we announce our new EAST surfer (presented by Kona Big Wave and Vans), dissect the financial realities of the Challenger Series, and why tradesmen actually have better surfing lives than the "pros". PS, we're throwing a US Open party with Quiksilver this Saturday night, July 25th at Bungalow in HB. Get there.
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  JJF vs Dane at the world's best righthander 17.07.2026 43min

  What's the best film section of all time? Mikey and Buck believe they've found it. Also in this week's ep: - drama in the latest Surf100 ep - the great fin debate - sharks v ketamine darts - and more!
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  Why Surf Films Will Never Win An Oscar | StabMic Ep. 22 13.07.2026 56min

  “I used to just drift through the world and have all these magic moments surfing. Now, I try so hard to make them happen, and it’s just so rare. I can’t believe how lucky I was.” For those suffering from Dane deficiency, some numbers: in the average StabMic episode, Dane accounts for roughly 15% of the single-camera shots. This time, he's north of 50%. Which is to say: this is the most Dane-heavy conversation we've ever released. For the starving, for the long winter, for the Reynolds romantics, here's your feed in full. First, a few bones from the carcass before we hand you the entire beast. Y2K is out. “It’s cool to get inspiration from the past, but to completely replicate it is weird.” On the fear of being stuck in the past: “Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing in a dated format, making surf films. But making 15-second clips for Instagram just doesn’t excite me.” On the architecture of a good surf film: “You’ve gotta create some sort of a narrative or a storyline. A lot of the time I like to edit body positions to match, from frame to frame. It’s not like a Marvel movie or anything, but you’re definitely carrying the viewer through it. It needs context. In my opinion, what makes a film is carrying from wave to wave, from song to song. It needs some sort of arc.” “I feel like I’m sounding like a kooky artist or some shit. Like I’m making surf films more complicated than they are.” On music: “Say using a Rolling Stones track - the viewer already has that song embedded in their psyche. They already have an emotional connection to it, so the surfing doesn’t look fresh.” On the Instagram torture chamber: “It’s kind of maddening. Like a hot chick that's having a margarita at sunset at a nice pool… you're just like, cool. Really glad for you. Stoked for you. What the fuck!” On the creative process: “There’s no playbook for making things work… you’ve gotta trust your feeling. It’s a lot of feeling.” Alright then. Grab a fork. Dinner is served.
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  Slater Swipes The Company AmEx, Cloud 9 Emerges, CTers Stoop To Challenger Mode 07.07.2026 47min

  A WSL mid-season update, featuring Stace G and Mikey C. The boys look back at the last six CT events, peer ahead to the next seven, give some world title updates, discuss the CS succumbers and more.
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  The Man In The Arena | StabMic Ep. 21 06.07.2026 1h 13min

  Why is Griffin Colapinto quoting Theodore Roosevelt? Why did his mother spend his formative years threatening him with homelessness? What are Gabby Medina’s hobbies? And why has Griff's romantic life, at various points, become a subject of interest among anonymous Instagram accounts? This week on the StabMic, we get them answers. Griff occupies a strange place in modern surfing. He's one of the best surfers on Earth, deeply spiritual, relentlessly positive, shares his journal entries on social media, quotes dead American presidents, and has also accumulated an online anti-fanbase. According to Griff, none of it ever really got to him. Years of hard-won self-love saw to that. It did, however, get to his mum, who apparently took the pile-ons personally. Speaking of his mother, she may also be responsible for much of his success, thanks to a particularly motivating parenting strategy: "My mum always told me I was going to be homeless. And I was like, 'No I'm not. Watch this.'" Griff insists he's mostly just a hardworking and genuine person trying to do his best, and sometimes he also likes to party. Somewhere around the halfway mark, after the world tour comp chat runs its course, the post-heat interview version of Griff exits, and we settle into a nice little picnic bro-date with tea and scones and giggles. Also joining us this week is our very own Joey Amico, temporarily occupying Dane's chair. His sustained commitment to taking the piss out of Dooma suggests he understands the assignment.
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  The WSL's New Stop... Is A Right? 03.07.2026 1h 2min

  And an incredible right at that. Perhaps the new best high performance stop on tour? This week, Mikey and Buck discuss the recent Cloud 9 announcement along with the best accessories in surfing, a new Surf100 x Pacifico) ep, crowd control issues at Teahupo'o, the entirely real and globally recognized World Cup of Surfing with special guest Paul Evans.
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  The Spectacular Vindication Of Dan Mann | StabMic Ep. 20 29.06.2026 1h 11min

  “This is surfing. The meanest people in the world get into making surfboards.” Surprising, then, that perhaps the most cartoonishly cheerful man in surfing right now also happens to be a board builder: Dan Mann. Dan’s been something of a hot industry topic in recent months, following his contentious victory in Stab In The Dark X, when Kelly Slater elected to crown his own shaper the best of the decade, prompting several weeks of the surfing world accusing him of being a self-licking ice cream cone. But Dan would get a chance to respond soon enough. A month later, in the rapidly assembled Stab In The Dark starring Ethan Ewing, Dan’s board, the same model, just scaled up to accommodate the mass and velocity of the Smooth Gorilla, made it all the way to the final, narrowly losing out to Hayden Shapes. Place some respect on the Mann’s name. This episode also features Stab co-founder Sam McIntosh, filling the chair usually occupied by Dane Reynolds. Before you oil your pitchforks, here’s the situation. It’s proven difficult to lock Dane down week to week, given the number of businesses, projects, and assorted obligations currently competing for his attention. Frankly, we’re lucky we’ve managed to get as much of him as we have. So, on the weeks Dane isn’t around, we’re experimenting with a slightly different flavour of StabMic: a more industry-focused edition, speaking with the people who keep the machinery of surfing turning, on both sides of the curtain. Think How Surfers Get Paid-lite. In this episode, Sam and Dooma shake Dan Mann by the shoulders and out fall the following opinions: surfboard shaping is too individualistic and needs more collaboration between the heads of the hydra; shit-talking is good for surfing, though he hates participating in it and especially hates being the recipient of it; PU boards are a bad habit we’re collectively unwilling to quit; and the future of surfboard performance already exists, sitting in plain sight, waiting for us to develop the courage or financial incentive to embrace it. For those who still long for Dane, who miss him when he’s not around, who’ve grown used to his weekly opinions arriving after decades of careful rationing, fret not. We’ve added a weekly Jordy and Dane segment. It will now exist in perpetuity, or until further notice. Alright then. Nature abhors a vacuum. This is episode #20 of StabMic.
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  How Big Is It? 24.06.2026 39min

  We mean the waves, of course. Head high? Double over? 30 ft? 100? An Irish beer brand will be the judge of that, in 3-4 business years. After discussing the new How Surfers Get Paid ep, Mikey and Buck debate whether or not Saquarema is a good wave and discuss the passing of San Diego surfer Patrick Phillips after an accident at Teahupo'o.
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  How Not To Start A Surf Brand, With Craig Anderson & Dane Reynolds | StabMic Ep. 19 22.06.2026 1h 6min

  Prerequisites for riding for Former: – Must be able to hang on trips – Must be willing to sleep on the floor of a warehouse That’s about it. Before you volunteer your soul, there’s also the unspoken requirement that Dane Reynolds and Craig Anderson respect your surfing. Yep. It’s alright. Sit back down. There’s a seat here, still warm, right next to me. Since this weekly chat began, we’ve been trying to pry the story of Former out of Dane. He usually gives us a few scraps before laughing about the various ways the business nearly imploded. This week he’s joined by longtime friend and business partner, Craig Anderson, a relationship that stretches back to the Modern Collective days, before the birth of their long-running creative alliance at Quiksilver. The pair unpack the many occasions Former almost failed, did fail, or found itself staring directly at the abyss. At one point the company was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and operating out of Dane’s garage. Despite a career spent brushing up against extinction, Former is still here today, more air in the lungs now, beating harder than it ever has. They also discuss the future of the brand, the makings of their new film, Defect, signing Elijah Berle following his online spat with Austyn Gillette, and the lasting impact of the late Dylan Rieder on the brand, the business, and the people around it. Episode 19. One of my favourites, for whatever that’s worth. Thanks to our sponsors, Rationale, Yucca Fins, Patagonia, and SlowTide, for making StabMic possible. Also, we had a slight audio syncing issue with Dane and Dooma’s mics this week. Hopefully it’s not too offensive to the ears. Apologies all round.
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  Saquarema Picks & Why Brazil Runs The Surf World 18.06.2026 49min

  A Saquarema CT preview featuring Stace G and Mikey C. Make your surf picks here: https://www.betonline.ag/sportsbook/futures-and-props/surfing/surfing-futures
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  El Sal Winner Leo Fioravanti On Rail Surfing, Brazilian Fans & More 17.06.2026 52min

  Buck sits down with the recent CT winner from Rome to dissect the 28-year-old's competition mindset and broader thoughts on modern-day surfing. Later, Mikey C joins Buck to discuss the new episode of Surf100 x Pacifico, Tom Lowe's near-death experience, and two Film of the Year nominees. This ep is presented by Slowtide and Pacifico. Shop the new Steph Surf Shop collab towels here: https://slowtide.co/collections/steph-surf-shop-x-slowtide