Coming Soon: Peter Mel Doc Dives Into Drugs, Sobriety, Friends, Fam, Rivals And Of Course, Big, Scary Waves

On January 8, 2021, Peter Mel caught the best wave ever ridden at Maverick’s. No question mark.

On January 9, if you’d tried to locate Peter to give him a high-five and an atta boy, you woulda found him sequestered in a dim room. 

“I was literally in a hole,” Peter told Jed Smith for a piece about the dopamine crash surfers face after adrenaline-rich sessions. “I didn’t want to see anyone.” 

The highs felt while surfing big waves typically result in precipitous crashes, unless you do something to keep the dopamine receptors flooded with fuzzy feelings.

The “something” Peter Mel used to do was drugs. 

“They allowed me to chase that natural feeling I was getting from kicking out in the channel in [big waves], trying to keep that euphoric…everything, all kind of feeling. Drugs gave me that.”

That’s a Pete-quote from Everything and All, a documentary premiering November 30 on Stab Premium. 

In the film, Peter shares never-before-told stories from his tumultuous rise-and-fall-and-rise. His upbringing in the family surf shop. The perks and pitfalls of running with the “Santa Cruz Crew.” How he and Darryl “Flea” Virostko pushed each other to the brink, in and out of the water. It’s a story about chasing excess, the ruins that occur when its found, and the glory awaiting when you overcome it. 

This one is not to be missed.

ALSO… 

We’ll be doing an IRL premiere at the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz on Wednesday, November 24 (Pete’s birthday!). Active Stab Premium members skip the line and get in free — just RSVP here. For gen pop it’s $10 at the door, which includes the film and a voucher for a free month of Stab Premium.