Re-Introducing: Stab Comment Of The Year

In Stab’s early digital days, the comment section didn’t even require a log-in. It was a living, breathing, engaged and enraged group, with an underlying villainous tone featuring streaks of brilliance often overshadowed by a race to the bottom.

It was also a time when we celebrated a prize for “Comment of the Week”

Fun fact: Our editor-in-chief, Mikey C., once won COTW before he was gainfully employed here. We also plucked former employee Jake Embrey from the comment section, as well as the unforgettable but short-lived tenure of Jack Mutschler.

We love the comment section when it’s thoughtful, measured, insightful and considered.

It keeps us honest, validates our best work, and lets us know when we need to change our direction. 

Thanks to a resurgence of reader insights, we figured it’s time to spin Stab’s creaky spotlight back toward the comment section — a domain that’s occasionally over-brutal (i.e. Filipe roast), long-winded (you know who you are), and furious (Bethany Hamilton x Rip Curl), but almost always insightful, funny, and honest.

So, how will this all work? 

Well, think of Walmart’s illustrious “employee of the month” model. We will choose one comment every month to be our — you guessed it — “Comment of the Month” (you’ll get a free year of Stab Premium).

Stab staff will select the winning comment based on a combination of likes and the degree of wit, brilliance, or relevance. While a touch of snark is encouraged, constructive criticism is preferred over outright negativity. Striving for cleverness is like mastering a chess game, while being mean is as rudimentary as knocking down a house of cards. We’ll be posting this comment on the Stab site and social media channels.

Then, at the end of the year, all 12 comments will be voted on via an email poll (similar to Stab Surfer of the Year), a poll on our Instagram story, a Stab staff vote, and a survey with surfing’s funniest pros.

The winning comment will win untold swathes of glory and clout, pseudo-intellectual cache, and yes, a mega-prize which will soon be determined.

That being said, surprise(!), we’d like to announce the winners for January and February. If this is you, comment below and we’ll send you the deets for getting your free year of Premium. These two Comments of the Month are our first entries into Comment of the Year that will have a shot at taking the home the über-prize.

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

Keep up the good work, friends. We will be watching. As you’ll see below, we jumped the (under)gun and sent this live a week ago for 10 minutes — two usual suspects saw it.

And yes, you can start below. Though that would be quite meta.