What Will Our Stab High Judges Be Looking For?
“I will burn any double grab trick with great pleasure. This applies for all divisions.”
You’ll need a Stab Premium account to watch Stab High Japan Presented by Monster Energy.
The event will be broadcast live on stabmag.com and the Stab Premium app at 5 pm on May 23rd and 24th (PDT), or 10 am on May 24th and 25th (AEST). Sign up to watch here.
On site entry to the event is free for all Stab Premium members who are in Japan and want to watch in person. Just email [email protected] and let us know which days you are looking to attend.
“I’m super excited,” Nathan Fletcher told me this week. “I think it’s going to be the best Stab High yet. Each year it gets better. So this one I feel like is going to be the pinnacle of sticking huge airs. Better section, better landing.”
As you well know, Stab High presented by Monster Energy is our best imitation of an international space race — with a field of competitors from Australia, Japan, California, Hawaii, Brazil, New York, France, Tahiti, China, and South Africa all competing to shatter the stratosphere.
And, for our seventh rendition of the aerial showdown, we’re going back to Japan to hit a brand new air section.
To judge our diverse array of invitees, we’ll be bringing along a handful of surfing’s most well-known and respected aerial tastemakers in our culture.
“Judging isn’t a very easy thing — especially when everybody’s your friend,” says Nate Fletcher. “You’ve got to really eliminate the bias in it, to make sure not to get blinded by friendship or personal stuff. Just try to be very consistent as far as what’s needed, what the person actually did, and eliminate all the other fucking chatter.
“It’s definitely something that has to be consistent and has to be fair and unbiased for the progression of the sport. Looks like the section’s a little bigger this year, so we’ll see guys going bigger consistently.”
You can read the entire list of invitees and judges here, or you can scroll down to see what individual criteria some of our judges will be looking for.
Judges
Nathan Fletcher
Nate is a man who needs little introduction. He’s landed bigger airs than our competitors while judging Stab High in the past, he’s graced magazine covers strictly on the basis of massive straighties, and he’s generally considered an irrefutable authority on the topic of progression in surfing.
“Height is the main thing for me personally,” says Nate. “Then it goes into the cleanliness of the landing, how well it’s landed. And then after that, I’m considering the technicality of the air and how inverted it is.”
You might expect Nate to be looking for a huge straight air to win the contest — but he refutes this expectation.
“If somebody boned a straight air way out and then brought it back, I think that could go into the high range, but you just can’t really give a straight air in a pool an excellent score,” he explains. “In my opinion, you’re not really going to be able to go any higher than everybody else. Everyone gets the same ramp. Like Pedro Barros did that crazy boned out one in Brazil, but then how do you score that against someone doing an upside down stalefish with a super clean rotation?
“Those are all going to be conversations between the judges as it’s happening in real time. Personally, I don’t think anybody can go into that nine range with a frontside straight air in a pool.”
Lee Wilson
You may remember Bali’s most talented (and opinionated) beach bum from last year, where he chose double grabs as his hill to die on.
Guess what? He’ll be doing the same this year.
“I really like lofty straighties and rotations,” says Lee. “I’m looking for clean landings, absolutely no patting the wave to get back in. No double grabs of any sort. I will burn any double grab trick with great pleasure. This applies for all divisions. That said, I love all single grabs, especially stalefish.”
Cory Lopez
Next up, the Andy Irons contemporary who Kelly Slater once described as ‘deadly in any condition.’ If you’ve seen his timeless sections from the early …Lost films, you’ll know that Cory will be our on-site style authority — and a big advocate for the goofy footers.
“Haven’t put too much thought into it yet,” Cory told us. “I wanna get there and see what’s going down. Definitely for me I would say the height of the air is very important. Then add the technical aspect with a clean landing.”
Parker Coffin
Next up, another goofy-footer known for his polished surfing, permanent smile, and clerical insights into surfboard design. Parker surfed in the event last year and, like Cory and Nate above, he agrees height is absolutely the most important.
“I wanna see people going huge,” he grins. “Could be tech or simple… as long as it’s high off the lip. For me, height is definitely most impactful, and then style is super important too.”
Honestly, if you want an excellent score from Parker, wouldn’t be a bad call to ride one of the many CI models he’s helped design.
Eric Geiselman
After Parker, we’ve got Eric Geiselman — a jack of all trades and a master of many. If you can land a backflip on a hydrofoil while passionately pulling a Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar solo from a Fender guitar, he’ll give you a 20.
Otherwise…
“Good style, bolts landings, loft, and flips,” says the Floridian. “No janky landings,” he laughs.
Dion Agius
Dion is a man whose career longevity has only been surpassed by the tenure of his youthful knee tendons. He’s a master of consistency, explosiveness, and spontaneity — and it’s not his first rodeo as a Stab High judge.
“I wanna see height, slow spins and style,” he says. “I’m sick of full rotations. More slow, more style, more loft. I’m also down for boned out, stylish straighties with height. Maybe some cool grab variations, or some lofty shuvs too.”
Catch him after the event belting karaoke in a dark Japanese bar and a pair of Ritual shades.
Eithan Osborne
In the judging booth this year we’ll have none other than last year’s Stab High Japan winner. While he’s recovering from an injury, Eithan will be expecting nothing but the sort of absolute commitment he’s shown on every single wave he’s ever caught.
“Any technical grabs are sick,” he says. “Obviously something we’ve never seen before would be epic, but if you’re gonna do an air rev or a straighty make sure it’s lofty and throw in a sick grab or something. For me, single grabs score higher than double grabs but if the air is high enough I can’t deny anything.”
Special thanks to our Stab High Japan 2025 Presented By Monster Energy sponsors: Monster, Sun Bum, YETI, Skullcandy, Kona Big Wave, Oakley, PerfectSwell, Xcel, and FU Wax.
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