Stab Podcasts

The Man In The Arena | StabMic Ep. 21 06.07.2026 1val 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.

The WSL's New Stop... Is A Right? 03.07.2026 1val 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.

The Spectacular Vindication Of Dan Mann | StabMic Ep. 20 29.06.2026 1val 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.

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.

How Not To Start A Surf Brand, With Craig Anderson & Dane Reynolds | StabMic Ep. 19 22.06.2026 1val 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.

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

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

Dane Reynolds Discusses The Biggest Regrets Of His Surfing Career | StabMic Ep. 18 15.06.2026 56min

If you ain’t the one, you the prototype. Every institution has its creation myth. Rome had Romulus and Remus, Apple had the garage, The Beats had the 1944 murder. StabMic, in its larval stage, had no posters, sponsors, or Danny from the booth. It wasn’t even StabMic yet. It was just an idea, and perhaps the defining idea of the modern male condition. We should start a podcast. This was sometime around the end of 2024. Dane and Dooma never got around to settling on a name, though several contenders emerged from the primordial soup: Shit Salad, Off The Pulse, Sucking Dick For Beer Money, Unemployable, and Nonsense. Fine names, in my opinion, if slightly difficult to monetise. History is written by the victors and unfortunately, so are algorithm-friendly podcast titles. On moving day at the old Chapter 11 store in Ventura, they filmed a pilot episode, an early hominid in the StabMic evolutionary timeline. Consequently, the recording is punctuated by customers wondering if the store was still trading, people searching for the new location, and team riders intermittently raiding the fridge for beer. The production values were also slightly lower than our current Ventura dungeon. One camera, a couple of microphones Dooma paid for himself, and several Coors Lights for social lubrication. Civilisation has been built on less. Many ramblings ensued. The conversation meandered through Dane’s fascination with inland America, from the magic of Idaho to the hoax of Wyoming, before eventually arriving at a number of his hotter takes. On the success of the Florence hood: “It pisses me off that he was able to do that.” “I’m not pissed off at John John, he rules, but it pisses me off how quickly he was able to connect with his audience, and that we weren’t. It’s a jealous thing.” On the financial mistakes of his career: “I was just an idiot. I wouldn’t do anything if I thought it was whack. I was very ungrateful. Money just wasn’t a tangible thing to me at the time. What they were paying me, and what they expected out of me, and how I was always just like, ‘fuck you!’ I was not grateful at all. Pro surfing doesn’t set you up for much humility.” “I didn’t think I was cool or rad or anything like that. I just didn’t see the transaction of money meaning anything.” “Money didn’t mean anything to me in my 20s. I’d only spend money on donuts and surf trips, and my sponsors would pay for those. With Monster, I was an idiot. I rode for them for a while, but when it came to re-signing, I was like, ‘Uhhh, I don’t really like Monsters, so I don’t want to ride for them anymore.'” “I would have been such a failure if I was growing up in this era. It’s so cringey to me to be self-promotional, and now you just have to be.” Dane also admits to turning down significant money from sunglasses brands because he hates wearing them. They make him feel like he’s wearing a mask, he says. Like he’s pretending to be somebody else. An hour-long experiment was all it took for the suspicion to form that this might be something worth continuing. Dooma got chatting with Sam Mc. One thing led to another, and roughly a year later, StabMic arrived. We’re now four and a half months into the project. Long enough, we thought, to revisit its awkward adolescence. This is the first recorded episode of StabMic in chronological time. Episode 18 in the order of release. Enjoy. This episode was filmed by Kevin Janson. Big thanks to our sponsors, Rationale Brewing and Yucca Fins, too.

A Massacre In El Sal + The Truth About El Niño 11.06.2026 45min

Can anyone stop a one-legged Italo? Doesn't seem like it, but we'll find out soon. Before dissecting the elite surfer massacre in El Sal, Mikey and Buck get into this week's news: - Surf100's first loser - The truth about El Niño - An (actually) unbiased wavepool review - When it's ok to paddle in (never?)

Ethan Ewing & Dane Reynolds Discuss The Best Surfboard On The Planet | StabMic Ep. 17 07.06.2026 1val 3min

Round up a dozen of the world’s best shapers. Lock them in their respective sheds and ask them to solve the same problem twelve different ways. Gather whatever they create, paint the rails blue and ship them off to Sumbawa. Acquire Ethan Ewing. Clear his schedule, handle him with care. Ship him to Sumbawa too. Point a few cameras at him, put him in warm water, let him loose. Set the Smooth Gorilla free. Make a film about it. Actually, make a TV series. Market him as a man inconvenienced by language itself. Send along Taj Burrow to help translate. Let him surf too. Then crack the whole thing open. Let the kid talk. Show that we’re all bags of meat with galaxies inside, even the quiet ones. Ask him to pick a favourite board. Don’t discourage him from choosing outside the aristocracy. Not one of the big dogs, in his words. Let him repeat it, too. How cool, he says, for an underling to win. Follow his travel schedule, hold premieres in its wake. Let the people gather in dark rooms and watch. Then, finally, sit Ethan Ewing and Dane Reynolds down and ask them to talk about all of the above, and a whole lot more. This is episode 17 of StabMic. Enjoy.

Is Italo Out For El Sal?! 04.06.2026 44min

World number 1 just copped another surfer's fin to the knee and received eight stitches(!). Will he be well enough to compete at Punta Roca? Time will tell, but for now, Stace and Mikey pontificate on everything else around stop number five on the 2026 Championship Tour.

The Truth About Stab in the Dark 02.06.2026 51min

Our new Stab in the Dark winner is surprising to say the least. Mikey and Buck break down Ethan's final ep with all its twists and turns, explain the new Surf100 season, discuss Gabriel Medina's foam infidelity, announce the best boardshorts in the world (according to you) and more.

The Skinny Meat Head Episode | StabMic Ep. 16 29.05.2026 51min

How do you measure success? Money? Conquests? Desires fulfilled? You know you’ve really made it when your name ends up in the dictionary describing a certain type of behaviour. An eponym is what we’d call it, if we were trying to sound intelligent. Which we are. So that’s what we’ll call it. Machiavellian, from Niccolò Machiavelli — describing someone willing to do nasty things in pursuit of an outcome. The end justifies the means. Real serpent behaviour and definitely nothing like the current moment we live in. Orwellian, from George Orwell — used to describe authoritarian control, surveillance, dystopian systems, and definitely nothing like the current moment we live in. Eithaning, from Eithan Osborne — coined by Dane Reynolds. A more contemporary addition to the discourse. Not yet recognised by major dictionaries, though give it time. Used to describe a specific type of erratic lineup behaviour that creates mass irritation, destroys all peace, and makes surfers question their instincts, positioning, and basic understanding of waves. We’ve long said Dane is at his best in these podcasts when he’s comfortable and sharing history with the guest, and this episode might be the clearest example yet. Fellow Ventura local, Chapter 11 affiliate, Stab High, Monster Air winner + Surf100 champ Eithan Osborne joins Dane and Dooma at the desk this week. The gents discuss Dane joining the local YMCA and being spotted curling his biceps, Former offering Eithan a deal before being outbid by Billabong, Eithan opening a wellness centre to repair his broken body, and plenty more. Whole lotta laffs in this one. Ep 16, enjoy.

Raglan Winners & Losers + Ethan's Stab In The Dark Finalists 25.05.2026 1val 4min

What is happening on the CT right now? We're a third of the way through the season, and there are four Brazilian goofies atop the men's rankings. On the women's side, no one seems to have found the world champ pace. At least we got to see the CTers go left for once. Stace G and Mikey C break down everything from the recent event at Raglan, before Buck comes on to bash seals, drag boy band members, and reveal a few state secrets from the Stab camp. PS, come watch Ethan Ewing's Stab in the Dark finale with us: When: Thursday, May 28th at 7 pm PST (finale starts at 8 pm). Where: Salud Studios at Tremont Collective, Oceanside, CA (602 S Tremont St Suite 104, Oceanside, CA 92054). Or online, only on Stab Premium.

Have We Moved Into A New Era Of Surfing? StabMic Ep. 15 23.05.2026 39min

“It’s hard to judge when these guys are progressing the sport that much, in such a short amount of time.” Among the vape stores selling synthetic cannabinoids, packeted magic mushrooms, and aggressively branded T-shirts bearing prophetic slogans like “It’s Not Gonna Lick Itself” and “Slippery When Wet,” alongside racks of hyper-compressed shorts stamped with male first names that claimed ownership of the wearer’s ass, stood CJ Hobgood. I know CJ works in real estate now, but after a week of bumping into him around the pool, I’d let that man house-sit my dog. Speak to any of the staff and the same name kept surfacing: CJ, everyone’s favourite person they met, the most personable, remembered names, stayed warm and curious through the whole thing, just a genuinely nice guy. He was also excellent in the commentary booth. Sharp, articulate, energetic, strangely attentive. At one point he appeared to be analysing the aerodynamic implications of a competitor’s hair bun placement. With an eye for detail like that, we thought it important to get CJ in for a full debrief of a week spent inside the beautiful, naturally exquisite civic labyrinth of Virginia Beach. The boys compare Hughie Vaughan’s stale backflip with Eithan Osborne’s backside-stale-body-varial-late-revert, straight airs versus rotations, Lee Wilson’s influence on modern aerial surfing, whether hyper-technical progression actually means better surfing, the changing of the aerial guard, and the important hypothetical of Nate Fletcher versus Kelly Slater in a 50+ air comp. Oh, and Dane Reynolds brought fellow Ch11 gang member / warehouse employee Jake Kelley to the desk with him.

Internationally Recognised Flying Object: Hughie Vaughan | StabMic Ep. 14 19.05.2026 47min

Hard to talk aerial surfing, these days, without coughing up the name Hughie Vaughan. Harder still to believe he’s only 19 years old. He’s really taken flight, if you will, over the past few years. The original seed for the Bottle Rockets division. Entered Stab High Lakey Peak as a tiny 15-year-old and levitated around the comp-site like a garden bird. Proved he could hang with fully grown men despite weighing the same as a damp towel. Couple years later, Japan 2025, Hughie comes of age and wins the men’s title, a spear tackle from Mikey Wright to seal it. Then: the Hughie Flip at The Nines, reshared and baptised by Tony Hawk. Mainstream television appearances in Australia followed; Hughie now a nationally recognised flying object. A day out from the opening horn of Stab High Virginia Beach presented by Monster Energy, and we get the former champ and in many circles, the overwhelming favourite, Hughie Vaughan. He discusses all there is to discuss about aerial surfing, including his current top air guys on earth, what he sees as the limitations of competitive surfing, and a genuinely moving section on family and the lessons left behind by his late mother.

The Vaughan Dynasty Continues + Stab High Afterparty Drama 17.05.2026 35min

Hughie Vaughan scores a perfect 50 to win Stab High x Monster Energy Virginia Beach, extending the Vaughan Dynasty from Japan and Sydney to the eastern US. Mikey and Buck discuss everything that went down this weekend with sore heads (and throats), the morning after finals day. Stab High is presented by Monster Energy with support from Vans, YETI, Quiksilver, Kona Big Wave, and Sun Bum.

Questionable Threeway At Stab High x Monster! 14.05.2026 33min

Stace, Mikey and Buck collide under jet-filled skies for our Stab High preview pod. Comp runs May 15-16 EST. Join us in VB or watch on Stab Premium.

Who Can Beat Medina At Raglan? 13.05.2026 44min

While Medina looks the favorite on paper (and perhaps even the warmups), he has a gauntlet to surf through if he wants to make the Raglan final. Griffin, Filipe, and then likely Yago or Italo in the final. One thing's for sure: it'll be a show. Buy Stab High tickets here (May 15/16 in Virginia Beach): https://booking.atlanticparksurf.com/store_19?_kx=Gp3GUxykDoH2PTHVsUs2lg.VBFqD4

Jordy Smith & Dane Reynolds Revisit Their Media-Manufactured Rivalry | StabMic Ep. 13 08.05.2026 1val 1min

Thanks bru. Thanks bru. Thank you, bru. By episode twelve, Jordy Smith had become StabMic’s absent father figure. Big Bru was mentioned constantly, looming every conversation. Dooma, especially unable to stop himself, damp-eyed, remembering him. Sooner or later, the spectre had to sit in the chair. So here he is. Jordy Smith joins Dane and Dooma on episode 13 of StabMic to discuss everything from rectal and scrotal trauma, the latter attributed to a swift kick from Andy Irons, the limitations of wavepools, and the mainstream-media–manufactured rivalry that defined their early careers. Among other highly specialised matters of public interest. Enjoy the episode.