The Top Five Stab Films You’ve (Maybe) Never Heard Of
A look through the archives.
If you’ve joined Stab Premium in the last year or two, there’s a good chance you’ve missed a few of our favorite projects.
Over the past six years, we’ve accumulated a fairly extensive library of surf films, documentaries, and series. Some, like Stab In The Dark and EAST, have become permanent fixtures on the surfing calendar. Others have quietly slipped down the homepage, buried beneath an ever-growing pile of new releases.
Which is a shame, because some of our favorite content is hiding under there.
So, we went digging through the archives and pulled out five of our most popular standalone films and documentaries, ranked by their ability to convince people to become Stab Premium members.
If you’re new here, consider this your homework. If you’ve been around for a while, perhaps it’s time for a rewatch.
1. Andy Irons And The Radicals (2021)
Before the three world titles, the Slater rivalry, and the mythology, there was a hellraising teenager from Kauai.
Released in 2021, ten years after Andy’s death, this four-part documentary traces his rise through the anarchic surf culture of the ’90s, from the infamous …Lost house at Log Cabins to his eventual domination of professional surfing.
Built around hours of previously unseen archival footage, much of it dug out of garages and dusty VHS collections, the series features candid recollections from Bruce Irons, Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson, Matt Biolos, Cory Lopez, and the people who knew Andy before the rest of the world did.
It’s an intimate portrait of surfing’s most magnetic and complicated figure, and a reminder of just how radically he changed the sport.
Watch Andy Irons And The Radicals
2. Everything & All: The Peter Mel Story (2021)
Everybody knows Peter Mel as the man who rode one of the greatest waves in Mavericks history. But what did it take to get there?
Directed by Kyle Buthman, Everything & All offers a candid look at the life of Santa Cruz’s most celebrated big-wave surfer, chronicling the personal struggles, addiction, setbacks, and eventual redemption behind one of surfing’s most extraordinary careers.
The film culminates in Pete’s January 8, 2021 Mavericks wave, a ride that immediately entered big-wave folklore. But the real substance lies in everything that preceded it: the decades of obsession, the personal battles, and the complicated relationship between a man and the thing he’s devoted his life to.
A film about much more than riding enormous waves.
3. Through The Doggy Door (2023)
Not every aspiring professional surfer grows up with a personal coach, a garage full of boards, and parents willing to bankroll the dream. Sheldon Paishon didn’t even have a house.
Growing up on Oahu’s Westside, Sheldon spent much of his adolescence homeless, navigating poverty and an unforgiving environment while pursuing the improbable ambition of becoming a professional surfer.
Narrated by his close friend Mason Ho, Through The Doggy Door follows Sheldon’s journey, and the community that helped him along the way. It’s a raw, occasionally hilarious, heartbreaking account of what chasing a surfing career looks like without the privileges we’ve come to associate with professional surfing.
The film won the Audience Award at the 2022 Hawaii International Film Festival, and we’re yet to meet anyone who made it through the full 90 minutes with dry eyes.
4. Are You Serious? The Sterling Spencer Documentary (2023)
Before he was a podcast star, Sterling Spencer had already made a career out of convincing people he was joking. Then something genuinely terrible happened, and nobody believed him.
In 2019, Sterling suffered a traumatic brain injury after being struck in the head by his surfboard fin. What followed was a bewildering deterioration in his physical and mental health, leaving the former professional surfer, internet comedian, and self-proclaimed centaur enthusiast struggling to walk, function, or convince doctors that something was seriously wrong.
Directed by longtime collaborator Dave Malcolm, Are You Serious? follows Sterling’s desperate search for answers while navigating the strange intersection of comedy, mental illness, and brain trauma.
It’s probably the only film we’ve produced that can make you laugh uncontrollably and feel physically sick in the same five minutes.
5. Blood, Sweat, Beers: The Story Of Rage
What happens when three of surfing’s least corporate personalities decide to start a surf brand?
Noa Deane, Creed McTaggart, and Toby Cregan weren’t particularly interested in building another polished surfwear empire. They wanted to make surf films, travel with their friends, and do things on their own terms. Rage was the vehicle that made it possible.
Directed by Stab’s own Danny Johnson, Blood, Sweat, Beers offers a look inside the early days of the independent Australian label, and the personalities, friendships, and creative impulses that shaped it.
Watch Blood, Sweat, Beers: The Story Of Rage.
— — —
The full archive is available to Stab Premium members. You’ve already paid for it. Might as well make the most of it.
