June's Comment Of The Month Is A Bite-Sized Surfing Retrospective On "The Great War" - Stab Mag

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France and Germany's surfing powder keg has been ignited...

June’s Comment Of The Month Is A Bite-Sized Surfing Retrospective On “The Great War”

Behave yourselves, France and Germany.

elsewhere // Jul 10, 2025
Words by Christian Bowcutt
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Gavrilo Princip (19) was just a few months older than Hughie Vaughan is now when he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, thereby igniting World War I’s short fuse.

Alas, how the passions of collegians so swiftly lead to violence.

Soon thereafter, the “powder keg” exploded — Germany attacked France at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, Great Britain then declared war against Germany, and one of the worst tragedies in human history was underway.

In that vein, two weeks ago, a German college surf league held a contest in Seignosse, France. Now two decades into running this contest, the league (ADH-Open Wellenreiten) had permits to lock down that portion of the beach. But, locals weren’t having it. Tensions rose until finally one French local took off in the contest area and shoved a female competitor off her board, causing outrage and rumors to explode throughout Europe.

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Maya Sauer (@maya.fiona) • Instagram photos and videos

We did a full article that dives into the nuance of the skirmish here.

In the comments of that article, rising all-star Mr. Cheddar chimed in with the following quip — taking victory in this month’s COTM.

Mr. Cheddar, please send us another email at [email protected] with screenshot proof of your Disqus account. Since you won in April and thus already have a free year of Premium in your name, you can pass a free gift membership to another Stab Premium commenter that you admire. We will track down their email. And, you will be double-entered in the running for the mega-prize for “Comment of the Year” at then end of, you guessed it, the year.

If you remember from this article, Chuck E. Cheese will now be one of 12 commenters (one for each month) that will be a candidate for COTY. He’ll be sparring against 11 other keyboard vermin for top honors.

Happy gnawing.

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