And Our $12k Kandui Resort Giveaway Winner Is…
Hosing down wildfires in Big Sur.
Wyatt Whitman was picked as the Kandui Resort winner entirely at random.
Conveniently, he also appears to be a legend.
When we launched our recent reader survey, we dangled a fairly persuasive carrot: a free trip to Kandui Resort for two, with two fresh Pyzels thrown in.
It worked. Thanks to Kandui and Pyzel, it became the most-completed survey we’ve ever run (10,403 responses).
So, firstly, thank you to everyone who spent a few minutes telling us what you like, what you don’t, who you want to see in our projects, and which brands you actually care about.
Even if you didn’t win, those answers matter. They help us decide what stories and films to make, which surfers you want involved in Stab projects, which brands we should chase for member discounts, and, naturally, give us plenty of material for questionable editorial investigations down the line.
But there could only be one winner. And that winner is…
A very good, largely underground California surfer who spends much of his year working for the US Forest Service fighting wildfires. When we called to tell him he’d won, he was midway through a two-week deployment in Big Sur, sleeping in a bag on dirt at the campsite.
“I couldn’t really sleep that night,” Wyatt told Stab. “I was rolling around in my bed for like five minutes just laughing. My buddy was like, ‘Are you good?’”
His current schedule is 14 days straight on fire duty, followed by three days off before potentially heading straight back out. Whenever those three days arrive, though, Wyatt generally spends them surfing, regardless of whether the waves deserve it.
“Good or not, I’m usually surfing every day,” he said. “I’ll just go out front if it’s shit and try to do one turn, call it a day.”
Big Sur, where he’s currently working, is also somewhere he’s camped and surfed since he was a kid. Which has made spending his days hacking through steep hillsides and poison oak while staring at a glassy Pacific Ocean particularly cruel.
“We’re up on the ridge looking down, getting our shit pushed in pretty much all day, and everyone’s got poison oak,” he said. “And then I’m like, ‘Oh man, the ocean’s right there.’”
Soon enough, he’ll have a slightly nicer ocean to stare at. Wyatt’s only dilemma at this point is figuring out who to bring along with him (his entire family surfs, as does his girlfriend).
Wyatt says Kandui Left is currently top of the wishlist, with Hideaways close behind. Rifles may require an in-person inspection, given it’ll be backside for him. Mostly, he plans on surfing absolutely everything he can, until his body reaches peak spaghettification.
As for whether he ever thought he’d actually win?
“No. I honestly forgot that I even did the survey,” he laughed. “It’s something you do, just toss your name in the hat and if it happens, it happens.”
Sage advice.
We’re always trying to find better ways to give something back to the people who read, watch and support Stab. That means more giveaways like this, but also Premium-only discounts and deals, VIP invites to events and, of course, access to all of our Premium films and series.
Wyatt, a 5.5 year Premium member, offered perhaps the strongest possible closing argument:
“Enter the raffles. You might win.”
Hard to argue with a man soon-to-be-packing for Kandui.
