Everything You Need To Know About The Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico

“We are survival machines,” Richard Dawkins writes in The Selfish Gene. “Robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”

No story structure captures human attention quite like the “Battle Royale”: Many contestants enter, one emerges victorious — a massive prize for the champion, elimination (or death) for the rest.

Whether in Hunger Games, Squid Games, Survivor, Super Smash Bros, The Purge, or, of course, Fortnite — it’s hard to take your eyes off the narrative representation of our deepest, darkest fears and desires.

In this vein, we’ve concocted a new spin on Surf100 — one of our audience’s most-requested projects. Traditionally, Surf100 has been a single, 100-minute surf-off that is pre-filmed, packaged up to ensure no dead space, then broadcast as-live on Stab Premium.

The last one was we did was in Mexico, all the way back in 2021(!) — with Mason Ho, Mikey February, and Dane Reynolds. Before that, we went to North Point with Jack Robinson, Jacob Willcox, Jay Davies, and Kael Walsh. And the first edition took place at Lower Trestles with Kolohe Andino, Griffin Colapinto and Ian Crane.

This year, we took a risk: Instead of one show, we decided to film a challenge series to qualify surfers for the main event. Of our eight contestants, the last two surfers standing will compete in a surf-off against two pre-seeded finalists in the best waves we can find.

When the main event goes live on September 10th, Stab Premium Members will control the judging, and the winner will take home $100,000 courtesy of Pacifico.

What’s The Format?

Eight surfers. Eight challenges. One winner.

Every episode in this series has a 100-minute, performance-based surf challenge — think Stab Highway, minus (most of) the gimmicks. Whoever comes last in each challenge gets sent home. The rest move onto the next challenge.

By Episode 7, just two surfers will remain. These two surfers will advance to a traditional Surf100 final, where two special guests will be waiting for them. Then Stab Premium Members will watch the final as-live and decide who wins the $100,000 via real-time judging.

This finale has already been filmed, but not judged. Meaning, there’s no winner yet. It’s up to you. We’re extremely proud of what’s been created so far and are excited for you all to see it.

Who’s In It?

Our surfers are:

“Rasta” Robb McCormick
Ian Crane
Cam Richards
Sebastian Williams
Jacob Willcox
Eithan Osborne
Noah Beschen
Mateus Herdy

For judge, jury, and executioner of the Surf100 series, we tapped the venerable Yadin Nicol. There will also be some guest judges and special appearances along the way.

Our host is the budding pro-turned-grocery-store-clerk Josiah Amico, who you may have seen enjoying his big break as a Stab High Japan commentator last week.

The two special guests who will compete against both survivors in the final surf-off cannot yet be disclosed.

When’s it dropping?

Pacifico invested generously in this project — as far as we’re aware, $100,000 is (tied for) the biggest single-event prize in surfing today. So, part of the deal is that the challenge series will live on Stab’s YouTube for all to see, instead of solely Stab Premium‘s eclectic flock.

The compromise is this: Stab Premium Members get to see each episode of Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico a week earlier than the freebies. AND the main event is exclusively available to Premium Members.

Here’s the full release schedule:

Episode 1:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, June 5th at 5 PM PDT on stabmag.com. Subscribe to Stab Premium here.
General release: Thursday, June 12th, at 5 PM PDT on Stab’s YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel here.

Episode 2:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, June 19th at 5 PM PDT
General release: Thursday, June 26th, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 3:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, July 3rd at 5 PM PDT
General release: Thursday, July 10th, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 4:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, July 17th at 5 PM PDT
General release: Thursday, July 24th, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 5:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, July 31st at 5 PM PDT
General release: Thursday, August 7th, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 6:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, August 14th at 5 PM PDT
General release: Thursday, August 21st, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 7:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, August 28th at 5 PM PDT
General release: Thursday, September 4th, at 5 PM PDT

Surf100 Final Broadcast With Live Scoring:

September 10th on stabmag.com. Must be a Stab Premium Member to vote.

We’ll see you this Thursday!