Stab Podcasts

Mikey is still trying to figure out how to tend to an infant (they don't need water and you're not supposed to give them honey), so BDPS and Holden Tourniquet recap Cloud 9, break down world title scenarios, and update you on all things Stab.

“If you go into a surf shop blindfolded, and taste test every product, it’s all the exact same. So many of the brands have become versions of one another.” This week on StabMic: a dose of nostalgia, a trip through surfing’s recent history, and a little healthy scrutiny of the modern surf industry, courtesy of Pat Towersey. A former pro surfer, longtime industry hand and now the founder and creative force behind concept brand Western Hydrodynamic Research, Pat has spent decades in the surf industry’s sausage factory. He’s got a few things to say about the meat. Sam McIntosh and Dooma are on hand to give him a decent squeeze, and find out what’s been fermenting all these years. Expect a few gentle shots at the surfing’s creative rut, its wardrobe of near-identical brands, the little shorts creeping down your shins, and the state of surf marketing. Pat somehow manages to deliver all this with the demeanour of a man who wouldn’t step on a cockroach. He’d cradle it in his hands, give it a little stroke, escort it outside and send it on its way with a kiss and a wish of good luck. Soft-spoken, affable, almost apologetic, even when offering some fairly candid thoughts on the business he’s spent much of his life in. For all the industry’s commercial contortions, there’s still something worth preserving, Pat reckons: the people, and the human connections that surfing has a habit of producing. If you ever find yourself alone, drink in hand, fire crackling, thinking fondly of the ’90s, Momentum Generation, Bruce Irons and Matt Archbold, and the time when professional surfers seemed to be carrying a few more unresolved personal matters, you’ll probably enjoy this. Thanks to our partners at Red Bull, Patagonia, Dome Dust, TurtleBox, Visit Dominican Republic, Devium, Yucca Fins, Roark, and Vaer for making StabMic possible.

Mikey is figuring out how to be a dad, so BDPS talks Cloud 9 with an experienced father (Stace, who packs his kids sushi for school lunch). Then he chats with Holden RVCA about all things Stab, including the new film 'Inflation Point,' and whether or not keeping an impact vest in your car keeps you safer in the water.

The winningest surfer in Stab High history, freshly qualified for the Championship Tour, a prodigy of two densely populated, heavily militarised territories — the United States and Snapper Rocks — opens her laptop and calls into a studio in Ventura. Later, another prodigy, and one of only five surfers in history to win three CT events in a row, in just her second season on tour, no less, opens her laptop and does the same. Both women are 19 years old, and if the prophecy holds, could become two of the most dominant surfers the sport has ever seen, reigning over the sea with the sort of authority once wielded by the pirate queen Ching Shih. Their only credible challenger, in time, may be each other. Their names are Sierra Kerr and Erin Brooks. Last week, we summoned both to discuss their recent conquests: Sierra qualifying for the CT, Erin winning three events on the trot, for episode 35 of StabMic. Thanks to our partners at Red Bull, Dome Dust, TurtleBox, Visit Dominican Republic, Devium, Yucca Fins, Roark, and Vaer for making StabMic possible.

It's not who you think... Mikey and Buck discuss the recently departed Rip Curl Pro Portugal, a new Stab film, a Stab Edit of the Year entry, WSL vs. ISA beef, the Australian storm and more.