Stab High Japan 2025, Presented by Monster Energy, is a surf contest focused on flight. Instead of connecting standard directional turns, the emphasis is on single, explosive aerial maneuvers.

This year, with support from YETI, we’re excited to announce four divisions: Mens, Ladybirds (15-and-under girls), Bottle Rockets (15-and-under boys), and the all-new Women’s Super Final. Additionally, the Monster Air Award will be won by the surfer who performs the most impactful air of the event, regardless of division.

Competitors will have multiple chances to land their best airs on PerfectSwell Shizunami’s ‘McFly’ air section — the same ramp that launched Pedro Barros and Italo Ferreira over Sao Paulo Surf Club’s back wall and onto our algorithms earlier this year. Expect a variety of grabs, rotations, and altitudes, all dissected by a pedantic, clipboard-wielding panel fluent in aerial surfing. 

The event will run on May 24 and 25 from 9 AM – 4 PM local time. That’s ______ in Sydney and ______ in Los Angeles (note the date shift for the Americas — Friday/Saturday instead of Saturday/Sunday).

If you’re in Japan, show up. If not, grab your friends and tune into the live webcast on Stab Premium.

Stab High Japan 2025, Presented by Monster Energy, is supported by YETI, Skullcandy, Sun Bum, and Kona Big Wave.

There will be 36 surfers in the Pro division, 10 Ladybirds, and 10 Bottle Rockets.  

Pro Men’s Division:
Ian Crane
Robbie McCormick
Matt Meola
Chippa Wilson
Judd Henkes
Levi Slawson
Harry Bryant
Pedro Barros
Jacob Szekely
Dakoda Walters
Albee Layer
Hughie Vaughan
Mikey Wright
Dane Henry
Balaram Stack
Cam Richards
Shane Borland
Finn McGill
Timo Simmers
Mateus Herdy
Shion Crawford
Makana Franzmann
Eithan Osborne
…and more

Pro Women’s:
Milla Coco Brown
Sky Brown
Sierra Kerr
Bethany Hamilton
Ladybirds Winner

Ladybirds presented by YETI:
Zoey Kaina
Eden Walla
Peeta Kenworthy
…and more

Bottle Rockets presented by YETI:
Zacky Taylor
Arthur Vilar
Caden Francis
Ryji Masuda
…and more

How do we decide who’s best in the air? We’ve grappled with this question since 2018, and have come up with a variety of answers over the years (head to the History tab for some backstory).

Here’s the approach in 2025:

The world’s best aerialists are split into four divisions:
– Pro (36 surfers)
– Ladybirds (10 girls, 15-and-under)
– Bottle Rockets (10 boys, 15-and-under)
– Women’s Superheat (4 Pros and the Ladybirds winner)

Day 1: Pro Qualifier (36 surfers)
– Six, six-person heats with a “Leaderboard Format”*
– Every surfer gets two right and two lefts
– Every surfer’s top single air counts
– Top 10 surfers advance directly to Semifinals
* Leaderboard format: Surfers compete against the entire field, not just the surfers in their “heat”.

Day 1: Pro Sudden Death Round (26 surfers)
– All previous scores are wiped for the remaining surfers
– Every surfer gets one wave in their preferred direction
– Top two surfers from Sudden Death round advance to semis
– Bottom 24 surfers are eliminated

Day 2: Semifinals — Pro (12 surfers), Ladybirds (10 surfers), and Bottle Rockets (10 surfers)
– Leaderboard format as well
– Pro: Two, six-person heats
– Ladybirds: Two, five-person heats
– Bottle Rockets: Two, five-person heats
– Every surfer gets two rights and two lefts
– Every surfer’s top single air counts
– Top four surfers advance to final

Day 2: Final — Pro (4 surfers), Ladybirds (4 surfers), Bottle Rockets (4 surfers), and Women’s Super Final (5 surfers)
– Every surfer gets three rights and three lefts
– Every surfer gets one bonus wave in their preferred direction
– Top right AND top left count toward a surfer’s total score
– Surfer with the best right and left total wins

In Person 

Come rub elbows and clink Monsters with us in Japan. Tickets are $40 USD (¥6,224 / $60 AUD) for the two-day live event, available for purchase here. Pro tip: Bring a board. You can book a session in the pool before/after the comp, or get a few waves down the street whenever you please — the ocean is only a three-minute walk from PerfectSwell Shizunami.

Online 

Can’t make it to PerfectSwell Shizunami? We get it. 

If you’re a Stab Premium member, you can watch Stab High online for free. If not, subscribe to Stab Premium to gain access to the event webcast, along with thousands of hours of backlogged films and original editorial, with plenty more to come. We’re offering a 10% discount to anyone who signs up for the annual membership — just use code STABHIGHANNUAL at checkout.

Times

The event will run over two days — Saturday, May 24th – Sunday, May 25th. Each day will feature around five hours of surfing, from 9 AM to 2 PM local time. If you haven’t been booking calls with your colleagues in Tokyo of late, we got you. Here’s what that looks like elsewhere: 

New York: 8 PM – 1 AM (-1 day)

Los Angeles: 5 PM – 10 PM (-1 day)

Rio de Janeiro: 9 PM – 2 AM (-1 day)

Sydney: 10 AM – 3 PM 

Perth: 8 AM – 1 PM

Dubai: 4 AM – 9 AM 

Bali: 7 AM – 12 PM 

Paris: 2 AM – 7 AM 

London: 1  AM – 6 AM

History

Past winners
Waco, 2018: Noa Deane
Waco, 2019: Chippa Wilson (Pro) and Sierra Kerr (Ladybirds)
Mentawais, 2020: Ian Crane (Pro) and Caity Simmers (Ladybirds)
Central America, 2021: Matt Meola (Pro) and Erin Brooks (Ladybirds)
Lakey Peak, 2022: Robbie McCormick (Proo) and Sierra Kerr (Ladybirds)
Japan, 2024: Eithan Osborne (Pro), Lucas Cassity (Bottle Rockets), Kiara Goold (Ladybirds)

Stab High was born as a response to conventional surfing events. We wanted to focus on a different side of surf culture — something freer, less structured, and more unpredictable. With the wavepool boom in its nascent era, we decided on an air competition at Waco Surf (then BSR Surf Resort) in Texas.

The first edition of Stab High took place in 2018. There were 16 competitors, and they tried everything from finger flips to straight airs to acid drops off the back wall (to be fair, we did have an Acid Drop challenge). That year, Noa Deane became the first Stab High champ. 

In 2019, we took our learnings from the first edition and headed back to Waco for another event  — with one notable addition. That year, we introduced the Ladybirds division. It was the first all-girls air comp, featuring four competitors under 15. In the end Sierra Kerr held the trophy, but aerial surfing was the real winner. The Ladybirds earned the most boisterous cheers of anyone in attendance and became the event’s main talking point for years to come. 

Then a pandemic showed up and live events disappeared. Wanting to keep Stab High alive, we took the socially distant approach and sent a stripped-back crew to the Mentawai Islands. We adapted the format, shot everything on location, and rolled it out as an episodic series. That was good fun, so we did it again in Central America in 2021, before returning to Indo in 2022 at Lakey Peak. That year, Sierra Kerr landed what is widely considered the best air ever landed by a female in the Ladybirds final. 

In the exploratory spirit of Stab High, we felt it was time to return to the live event format last year. Enter: the chlorine coliseum of PerfectSwell Shizunami. In the end, it was Eithan Osborne, Lucas Cassity, and Kiara Goold who took the win in 2024.

This year’s Stab High will run on Saturday, May 24th and Sunday, May 25th. On top of our 36 pro competitors, a fresh flock of YETI Ladybirds, and a new pack of YETI Bottle Rockets, we are pleased to host a brand new division — the Women’s Pro Super Final.

This event has always been about progression, and there’s no better example than the youth.