Stab Podcast: Why Mason Ho Doesn’t See JJF As Stab Surfer Of The Year

This week on the podcast: the clock’s ticking. Ten days till the year’s done, and the bone’s far from clean.

Buck and Mikey kick things off with a deep dive into The Vans Pipe Masters: the glory of Erin Brooks’ cockeyed closeout, and Nate Florence’s masterstroke over the competition, and, more broadly, his finesse of the surf world as a whole. Nate shot his own movie, cast himself as the star, sold tickets to the whole internet, and then dropped the bombshell of his victory in front of the very eyes he had lured in.

 “A marketing masterclass,” Mikey says. “Even after the bad days of competition, they were making enough through YouTube donations to go out and have full team blowouts. I’m gonna try and chat to Nate to see exactly how much he made, but I know it’s not an insignificant amount.”

Pays to have the fastest-growing surf-related YouTube following in the world. Will it be enough to carry the middle Florence child to back-to-back Stab Surfer of the Year titles?

According to Matt Biolos, absolutely not. “Nate’s not really my kink. Every weekend, I like to sit down and watch Mason Ho videos. He’s a bright spot on our culture, and I love him.”

The first round of votes are in. More will trickle in over the next few days, and by December 31st, we’ll have a new SSOTY.

More urgently, the Eddie’s coming, and you can feel it — cars stuffed with bodies sleeping in them, phones useless from the sheer number of them in use. Right now, we’re on green alert, and it’s all systems go for tomorrow morning.

“Hopefully, it’s 100% going to be on,” offers Mikey. “Can you think of a better way to spend the Sunday before Christmas than just cozied up, watching the Eddie?”

Also included: the boys go full Dave Rastovich, picking apart the best surfboards on the market, as ranked by Stab Premium members. They get all worked up over the wild tale of Joel Taylor, the trailer for Stab Highway East Coast, and a whole lot more. 

Last episode of the year. Buckle up, and happy damn holidays.