“If You Really Want To Win Stab High, You Gotta Do It Single Grab”
Jacob Szekely and the positive side of peer pressure.
Four days ago, we shared a video of Jacob Szekely speeding towards an aquamarine triangle of water in the middle of Texas, leaping into the air, grabbing his board with two hands, spinning it 360 degrees under his feet, and landing in gurgling whitewater with his arms extended in exuberance.
The comment section quickly became a race to name the trick, to debate if it had been done before, to decide if it was compelling or kooky.
“That was insane @zeke_” commented Al Cleland Jnr.
“My goat!!” said Eithan Osborne.
Italo Ferreira offered his opinion in the form of some emojis.
“360 varial. Used his hands to spin,” wrote Kaipo Guerrero. “The varial was invented in the early 80s. The trick was named as an ode to skateboard brand Variflex.”
Above is a full video behind the process, which Zeke dubbed ‘My War’ after the famous Thrasher series.
“Basically we got to Waco and we got to surf two hours in the afternoon,” says Zeke. “I landed a couple airs, I did a big spin, I did a lien oop and then I was feeling good. Then I spent like an hour and a half trying the 360 shuv with a double grab. The first two I got close, and then it just got super far away from me. The next day I came back and tried the double grab in the morning, but didn’t even get close. Then in the afternoon, me and Skip had a session and the first try on the double-grab 360 shuv just came down under my feet. I think it was because there was some onshore wind that normally would be horrible for airs, but because I was throwing the shuv behind me, the wind just brought it back to me.
“That was after, I don’t know, 40 attempts of trying it that trip, plus all the times I’ve tried it in years past.”
Zeke says he went on this trip to Waco with a slightly different mindset from past sessions.
“In years past, I would try it like five or six times and be like, ‘Oh, there’s no fucking way I’m landing this,’ and I’d just give up. This trip I decided I was dedicating at least 50 attempts on a trick that may not happen. I figured I might just waste two hours, but maybe I’d land it.”
Land it he did — and posted it straight to social media.
“I posted it, and pretty quickly I started seeing all the comments. Nathan Fletcher actually called me to congratulate me, which was insane. But then I started having people message me talking about how it was a double grab. I had Josh Kerr and some of my friends be like, ‘Yeah, honestly, if you really want to win Stab High, you gotta do it single grab.’ And I realized they were right.”
So, he went back to the pool.
“So we extended our trip,” said Zeke. “We changed our flight three different times. That was a war to get the single grab. That took two different hour long sessions, and maybe another like 20 or 30 attempts.
“I knew I could do it. That’s was what was crazy. I was so close. The first couple tries, I had it and then it slipped away. It took me a bunch of tries to go back and get it proper and clean.
“The 360 shuv has been such a debate in surfing for the last 10 or 15 years,” continues Zeke. “There’s been people doing it on finless boards. Chippa Wilson did a proper one at Waco eight years ago, but he went into layback. Baja Koala did a different body varial shove in the ocean without a grab but still super sick. Noa Deane’s tried it frontside in some of his video parts, but there hasn’t been a really proper make.”
According to 2x Olympic Gold Medalist Keegan Palmer, the single grab to single grab make is technically called a Lien 3 Shuv.
In the caption on one of the posts, Zeke called himself the ‘king of this shit’ in all caps.
“Look, do I actually think I’m the King of Wavepools? Do I actually think I’m the best air guy on the planet? If you’d asked me that in real life, I’d say no. I’d say there’s tons of other air guys that are inspiring me and that are blowing my mind. But when I’m in that artist mode and I want to stir the pot, of course I’m going to caption it like that. I’m going to stir the pot.
“And yeah, I do think I’m one of the only ones that is going out there and trying to bring skate stuff to surfing, trying to get creative and do new tricks. Every top pro for the last 15 years has been stuck on the same tricks.”
So, will he bring this trick to the next Stab High? Time will tell.
And Lee Wilson will have to score it.
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