A Weekly Recap: The Dock Flogs Eithan Osborne, Medina Wins J-Bay, And A Surf Mat Rider Is Convicted Of Surf Assault

Sorry for the two week hiatus on this thoroughly unoriginal segment. The past two Sundays (on which I write for this magazine website) have been filled with other news, clips, and even the odd piece of informative advertorial. This weekend however my inbox is clear and the past seven days have been relatively action packed. Not action as in I managed to pick up or do more than one turn on a wave, I simply meant there were a handful of stories worth re-mentioning.

So, here’s what went down on stabmag.com in the last few days.

The Dock 2.0 was finally dropped

And it dropped Eithan Osborne with it. 

It’s been a few years since we filmed and released the original Dock shot in Bali and ever since we’ve hoped to replicate it at an A-frame beachie. That didn’t happen, but there were a few opportunities to step off into head-high tubes that more often than not closed out. 

Watch the clip below, and read some FAQ’s about the Dock 2.0 and what it took to make it, here. 

Gabriel Medina won at J-Bay, the first screwfoot to do so since ’84

I’ll be honest, I didn’t watch a single heat of the event, but I did watch the final day highlights and Gabby seemed to surf pretty well. A few days before the final our version of Nostradamus, Mike Ciaramella, predicted that Filipe Toledo would three-peat at Jeffreys. It turned out he was wrong on the winning name but right in predicting Brazil’s utter dominance at the world’s premiere right point – Italo came second and Filipe made it to the semis. 

I suggest watching the heat analyzer of the final day. Italo was ripping, as was Kolohe (the new yellow jersey holder) and Carissa Moore also went on to win and take the lead in the women’s division. 

The surf never got quite as good as the days leading up to the waiting period, but it was big, a little wobbly and full of ‘excellent’ scoring rides. 

Vissla released a new film you might like

It features Bryce Young, Eric Geiselman, Derrick Disney, Cam Richards and other people who ride surfboards. You’ll probably rewatch most of Bryce’s waves in it; he’s quite ridiculously good here. So good in fact that people even commented nice things underneath the original article. 

A man stripped naked and paddled a board out to his son – mid heat!

Connor Lee, a seventeen year old Newcastle grom, snapped his board at a heat at Lennox. His dad, being a caring parent and enthusiastic coach stripped naked and paddled a spare out to his son mid-heat.

His dad’s efforts weren’t enough to sneak Connor through the quarterfinal heat – he got knocked – but they were enough for some worthy Instagram stories and a quick interview which you can read here. 

Kanoa Igarashi dropped a clip worth viewing

Kanoa is currently fifth on the CT. He won his first ever event in Bali and this short film follows him around Bali that debut win and back over to Oz for the Margaret River comp. Kanoa who was once a young kid from Huntington looks to be solidifying his presence on tour and even throwing himself in the world title mix, as unrealistic as that might seem. 

The only advice I have for Kanoa is that he go back to his natural locks. The bleach blonde looked like shit on Filipe, offensive on Miguel, forced on Freestone, peculiar on Aaron Carrera, and unsurprisingly terrible on the Japanese-American. Putting lemon juice in your hair post-surf is one thing, taking a bottle of peroxide to it is another. 

The Padang cup looks set to run tomorrow

Judging from my Instagram feed it looks like it’s already pumping and the swell is filling in even more meaning we look primed for a tube-fest to take place on the Balinese peninsula in the next 24 hours. 

There’s names like Nathan Florence, Clay Marzo, Matt Wilkinson, Mason Ho, Lee Wilson and myriad more names from Indo and elsewhere competing. It will be envy inducing, but you should watch it in the very likely circumstances that it runs. 

Carcass was found guilty of assault 

Carcass AKA Mark Thomson (the father of Daniel ‘Tomo’ Thomson, a mid-north coast wundershaper) was found guilty of assault after attacking Jodie Cooper – former world number two – in September of last year.

Mark ‘Carcass’ Thomson and his trusty inflatable surf mat.

Carcass dropped in on Jodie Cooper out at Lennox, proceeded to ‘cutback’ into her and then held her head underwater in the post-collision aftermath. In short, Cooper had to feign drowning so Mark would let up and now she’ll be feeling even more relieved that the surf mat riding aggressor is facing up to five years in prison – although community service looks to be the most likely punishment at this point. 

The Kelly Slater Wave Co is opening to the public*

*Well, it’s a trial run to the public, valued at $3,500 per person. 

The day includes three hours of pool time, surf coaches to critique you over video, stroke analysis from a paddling coach, food, hot tubs, and even a craft of your choice to ride around the site while you’re not surfing. 

If you have the cash to splash it might be worth considering. It’ll probably be your only chance to surf the wave that landed smack bang on Adriano de Souza’s glory at the end of 2015. 

Oh, and John John posted all his films on YouTube

It’s like Marine Layer now, just not as good. Watch them anyway, it’s still better than actually surfing.

And ‘Outside’ of Stab

Someone called Will Taylor penned an article about pissing in your wetsuit and the benefits of it. 

I’ve never felt more comfortable to admit pissing in my suit is the only thing getting me out of bed in the morning.