Dates:
June 22nd (Sat) & 23rd (Sun)
Time:
Local: 9 AM – 2 PM JST
Sydney: 10 AM – 3 PM
Paris: 2 AM – 7 AM
Los Angeles: 5 PM – 10 PM (-1 day)
Rio de Janeiro: 9 PM – 2 AM (-1 day)
Stab High Japan, Presented by Monster Energy, is a surf contest that celebrates the many different arts of flight. Rather than having competitors connect relatively similar directional changes for a score, the emphasis will be around single, explosive aerial maneuvers.
Our 2024 edition will take place at PerfectSwell Shizunami in Shizunami, Japan, on Saturday, June 22nd, and Sunday, June 23rd, with a live broadcast beaming to the earth’s every corner.
This year, with support from YETI, we’re excited to announce three divisions: Mens, Ladybirds (15-and-under girls), and Bottle Rockets (15-and-under boys). Additionally, the Monster Air Award will be won by the surfer who performs the most impactful air of the event, regardless of division.
All of our competitors will have several chances to land their best airs on PerfectSwell Shizunami’s ‘High Ball’ air section, which past Stab High winner Chippa Wilson has called, “probably the best one yet.” Surfers’ creativity will be expressed in the form of different grabs, rotations, altitudes and styles, so we’re bringing a wide range of judges with aerial expertise to sort through it all.
The event will run from 9 AM – 2 PM local time. That’s 10 AM – 3 PM in Sydney and 5 PM – 10 PM in Los Angeles (please account for a date change if you’re in the Americas — Friday/Saturday instead of Saturday/Sunday).
Get there in person, or gather your friends and watch the live webcast on Stab Premium.
Stab High Japan, Presented by Monster Energy, is supported by YETI, Skullcandy, Sun Bum, Sambazon, and GoPro.
There will be 36 surfers in the Pro division, 10 Ladybirds, and 10 Bottle Rockets.
Pro Division
Chippa Wilson
Ian Crane
Harry Bryant
Noah Beschen
Julian Wilson
Matt Meola
Mikey Wright
Noa Deane
Robbie McCormick
Luke Swanson
Mason Ho
Kaito Ohashi
Julian Wilson
Oscar Berry
Micky Clarke
Shane Sykes
Ivan Florence
Shun Murakami
Eli Beukes
Levi Slawson
Dakoda Walters
Shaun Manners
Albee Layer
Hughie Vaughan
Joel Vaughan
Parker Coffin
Masatoshi Ohno
Jake Kelley
…and more
Ladybirds presented by YETI
Patti Zhou
Zoey Kaina
Kiara Goold
Tya Zebrowski
Maddie Stanton
Yuzuki Iha
…and more
Bottle Rockets presented by YETI
Cruz Dinofa
Arthur Vilar
Ryji Masuda
Loci Cullen
Jaggar Philips
Zacky Taylor
Caden Francis
…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 2024:
The world’s best aerialists are split into three divisions:
– Pro (36 surfers)
– Ladybirds (10 girls, 15-and-under)
– Bottle Rockets (10 boys, 15-and-under)
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), and Bottle Rockets (4 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
Want to upload the 2024 edition of Stab High into your brain’s hard drive? Come bump shoulders and clink glasses with us in Japan. Tickets are just $40 USD (¥6,224 / $60 AUD) for the two-day live event, which you can buy here.
Note: we’d recommend bringing a board to the event. 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, June 22 – Sunday, June 23. 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
Past winners:
Waco, 2018: Noa Deane
Waco, 2019: Chippa Wilson and Sierra Kerr
Mentawais, 2020: Ian Crane and Caity Simmers
Central America, 2021: Matt Meola and Erin Brooks
Lakey Peak, 2022: Robbie McCormick and Sierra Kerr
Stab High was launched as an alternative to traditional surf events. We felt there was a need for something that celebrates a different side of surf culture — the loose, expressive side that originally sucked us into the surfing vortex. 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 out 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 this year. Enter: PerfectSwell Shizunami.
This year’s Stab High will run on Saturday, June 22nd and Sunday, June 23rd. On top of our 36 pro competitors and a fresh flock of YETI Ladybirds, for the first time ever, we’re introducing the YETI Bottle Rockets division — the world’s best male aerialists under 15 years of age.
This event has always been about progression, and there’s no better example than the youth.
