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.

Dave Rastovich has travelled the globe campaigning for porpoise welfare. He helped pioneer Shipsterns, appeared in some of the most impactful surf films of a generation, and managed to make surfing pay without getting too involved in the business of making surfing pay.

He's also managed to go uninfected by internet brain rot. Never been exposed to the psychic debris of being online. He knows nothing of the daily nonsense that occupies the rest of us, and seems to have suffered no great loss as a result.

Anyway, Rasta has made it to the StabMic desk.

It’s a rare sighting beyond his Northern Rivers property of abundance, this time in California to tour Sensing Home, his new film with Patagonia.

Dave talks about getting stoned in Mundaka and realising he wasn’t going to pursue the tour, the parallels between surfing and sex (and why the viewing experience of both can be a little disheartening), and how surfing can be simultaneously meaningless and essential to a good life.

Mostly, though, it’s two of surfing’s more fascinating specimens, Dane and Dave, both famously elusive in their own ways, in the same room talking shit for two hours. A double feature for the romantically inclined, eye candy for the surf nerd.

Thanks to our partners at Red Bull, Dome Dust, TurtleBox, Visit Dominican Republic, Devium, Yucca Fins, Roark, Colby +, Patagonia, and Vaer for making StabMic possible.

Everything we know (for now) about the allegations against Al Cleland Jr, and a Rip Curl Pro Portugal preview.

The sun never sets in the EAST, and New York City never sleeps. A match made in insomnia, and we figured the two ought to meet.

Last week, we gathered at Vans Skate Space in Brooklyn for the finale of EAST starring Harry Bryant, where we crowned Ashton Pickle heavyweight champion of the weird.

The next day, we took the party to 90th Street, where attendees got to test drive Haz’s EAST quiver.

Having made a day of the beach, we made an evening of the bar. Ashton, Harry and Dooma took the hot seat at Bungalow Bar retired for a live StabMic, with special appearances from Mikey Feb, Danny Johnson and Dugong breeder, Will Solly.

Our thanks to Kona Big Wave and Vans for bringing EAST to New York, and to Red Bull, Dome Dust, TurtleBox, Visit Dominican Republic, Devium, Yucca Fins, Roark, and Vaer for making StabMic possible.

Who said it?

If you watched the EAST finale with Harry Bryant, you already know the answer.

If not, have a listen here as Mikey and Buck discuss the spectacular way in which our annual alt board fiasco concluded. Genuine shock and awe thanks to the wizardry of Danny Johnson (and a bit of Haz).

Also in this ep:

- Does Japan have the best localism?

- How many rails is too many rails?

- Which surfer is owning 2026?

And more.

In Episode #33 of StabMic, Hunter Martinez, Dane Reynolds, and Jake Kelley sit down with Dooma to talk through the making of DEFECT.

We let the film run, and we let the boys talk to it. Stories of great value ensue: misadventures in an Indonesian corner named after the phallic appendage of one sailor-surfer, the music choices, the trips, and an additional clip of Dane running shirtless through a cemetery, narrated by Chris Hemsworth.

This is DEFECT, explained by the chefs themselves.

For those keeping score, we missed a week. DEFECT was meant to be Episode #32, but music licensing issues threatened to consign it to the dustbin of digital history. Happily, the threat has passed, and DEFECT shall remain on the internet for eternity.

Thanks to our partners at Red Bull, Dome Dust, TurtleBox, Visit Dominican Republic, Devium, Yucca Fins, Roark, Colby +, and Vaer for making StabMic possible.