Stab High Japan, Presented By Monster Energy, Returns For 2025
36 Pro Men, 10 Ladybirds, 10 Bottle Rockets, the first-ever Pro Women division, and a brand new air section.
Come a little closer, let me whisper in your ear: Stab High Japan, presented by Monster Energy, is back for 2025.
Not exactly breaking news, and certainly not a secret worth clinging to, especially with the competition barely a month away. But here it is anyway: the world’s top aerial surfers will gather at Shizunami Surf Stadium on May 24th and 25th to see who can jump the highest. Cold, pressed, and now, released.
A refresher: less than a year ago, Eithan Osborne stale-fished his way to a $15K check. Matt Meola sacrificed himself at the altar of aerial purity. Jacob Szekely and Shaun Manners engaged in a globally streamed online spat, only to resolve it when Shaun, assumedly sans undergarments, borrowed Zeke’s clothes. A quaint gesture of reconciliation, the kind of bonding that could leave even rival warlords exchanging knowing winks.
In a year marked by change and a steady stream of global absurdities, no day stood out more than when professional skateboarder Pedro Barros launched the highest — and most boned-out — aerial maneuver in wave pool history. An alpha flex, no doubt, and one that mocks, in a single breath, Kelly Slater, Laird Hamilton, even Pedro Scooby. You gonna take that, professional surfing?
Evidently, no, professional surfing was not going to take that. A few weeks later, Italo Ferreira, the mad king himself, couldn’t stomach the shame any longer and reclaimed the throne, hoisting himself higher than Pedro Barros and returning power to surfers everywhere.
The cultural significance of Italo’s jump, however, remains under review, given that it was, after all, a double-grabbed superman… in a construction helmet.
You paying attention, Lee Wilson?
Anyway, the point is, these monumental leaps (ahem) were only made possible by the alien tech being trotted out by American Wave Machines. At their freshly operational PerfectSwell pool at São Paulo Surf Club, an undeniably potent weapon was unveiled.
This alien technology, known as the McFly section, sparked an existential dilemma on Stab’s Slack threads: How do you host an air comp in a Japanese wavepool, branding it as a test of innovation, when a far more absurd spectacle is unfolding elsewhere?
Well, after a brief bout of conceptual panic, PerfectSwell Shizunami kindly informed us that Shizunami also has a McFly section in development. Still in the testing phase, of course, but something should be ready by May. The cover image of this article is actually Bottle Rocket Ryji Masuda testing the McFly prototype out for us last week…
If all goes to plan, there’ll be new air section this year. Also, many new competitors, including surfing’s latest supervillain, Pedro Barros, Stab Highway East Coast star and professional snowboarder, Judd Henkes, and, tantalisingly, Dane Henry.
In addition to our 36 Pro competitors, we’ve got a fresh batch of YETI Ladybirds and a new swarm of YETI Bottle Rockets. Oh, and we’re also debuting a new division, presented by Sun Bum: Pro Women, headlined by Milla Coco-Brown, Sierra Kerr, and Sky Brown.
For the event format and the full list of competitors, click here. Interested in the history of Stab High? Click that link too. If you still have questions, send a recording of your best Chewbacca impression to [email protected].
See you in May.
