2026 Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico, Episode 01
Challenge 1: Our eight surfers play capture the flag at Blacks Beach.
Welcome to Episode 01 of the Surf100 Challenge Series Presented by Pacifico, the first of our eight-part $100,000 surf match.
This year, we’ve got another eight brilliant surfers in contention: Zeke Lau, Jackson Bunch, Finn McGill, Ryan Huckabee, Kyuss King, Benji Brand, Dakoda Walters, and Dimitri Poulos.
Of these eight, only two surfers will survive into our classic Surf100 finale*, where they’ll face off against two mystery invitees for a chance at the six-figure prize purse.
“We upcycled a few challenges from last year with tweaks and minor improvements from our learnings, then we added a few new challenges from Episode Four onwards,” says Surf100 producer Garrett James.
Our first challenge? Capture the flag.
The rules are simple. Everyone paddles out for a 100-minute surf. At the 50-minute mark, whoever has the best combined left/right score is safe and paddles in. Every 10 minutes thereafter, the surfer with the top combined score will be called in and advance to the next challenge.
This continues until there are just two surfers left at the 100-minute mark. After that, the surfer with the lowest combined score will be sent home.
As you’ll see, our first challenge is undertaken at a fabled nude beach about 40 miles north of Tijuana and about four hundred paces north of UCSD’s Scripps Pier — Blacks Beach.
“Everybody flew and we ran interviews the day before,” says Garrett James. “A few of the guys had a surf the evening before the challenge, but for a couple of them this challenge was their first surf off the plane. Kyuss landed pretty late, which led to him wrapping his interview close to midnight, before getting dropped at the surfer house for the early wake-up call.”
The waves at Blacks were, as you’ll see, challenging. But not for lack of opportunity.
“We got down to Blacks and the waves were cooking when we first pulled up. But if you can imagine organizing eight surfers and another 12 production heads, it was a bit hectic,” laughs Garrett. “We had to wait a minute for Skip [McCullough, our guest judge] too. Apparently he was building a fence as part of his day job. By the time we got into position, the wind had kicked in a bit and it was a race against the dropping tide. Fortunately, these challenges aren’t supposed to be easy, and there were still plenty of sections to be found.”
Throughout the next few episodes, the quality of the waves increases notably.
“The next episode has some of the most rippable Oceanside conditions you could imagine, it was like a skatepark,” says Garrett. “There are some big moments coming. A lot more drama, too. And some surprising showings. It seemed like everybody was just feeling each other out this episode.”
Some other side notes for this first episode: Benji wore flip-flops for the entire time he was in California. He didn’t actually bring any clothes other than his usual Hawaii attire. He also didn’t bring any boards.
Dimitri and Ryan Huckabee are good friends and showed up together. Despite looking like surfing’s version of Shaq and Kevin Hart, their competitive friendship borders on brotherhood. Admirable.
Oh yeah, and Skip had to go back to installing a fence after judging this challenge.
Release Schedule
The second season of Surf100 Challenge Series Presented by Pacifico goes live June 3 on YouTube, but Premium members get to watch each episode two days early (watch your email).
Here’s the full YouTube release schedule:
Ep 1: Wednesday, June 3
Ep 2: Wednesday, June 17
Ep 3: Wednesday, July 1
Ep 4: Wednesday, July 14
Ep 5: Wednesday, July 29
Ep 6: Wednesday, August 12
Ep 7: Wednesday, August 26
Live Finale: Wednesday, September 9*
*Watch the finale online exclusively on Stab Premium, or join us in person for the big song and dance (all comers welcome, details TBA).
