The Pick-Up: John John’s Soft Return, The North Shore’s Housing Crisis, And More!

Welcome to the Pick-Up, Stab x Vans’ new twice-weekly variety show, shot on location on the North Shore of Oahu for the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.

On our fledgling effort, Stab’s Madame Bovary, Basque surf and skate veteran Tiph Cazalis, is joined by Australian surfing’s most cosmic personality Harry Bryant and Stab’s Ashton Goggans, as well as special guest Vans Pro Winner Davey Van Zyl, Nathan Florence and Jon Pyzel. 

Here are your headlines: 

The North Shore Has A Housing Crisis

Unless you’re planning on staying for thirty days or more, surfers rolling into Oahu this month have confronted the very real consequences of Hawaii passing new vacation rental laws, which has put the squeeze on AirBnb bookings and left many surfers scrambling for accommodation

Stab in the Dark All Stars Drops Soon

For this year’s Stab In The Dark, Stab assembled three of the last four Stab in the Dark Mystery Surfers, and the six best performing shapers, in South Africa. Mick Fanning, Jordy Smith, and Dane Reynolds surfing from Durban to Bay to decide The World’s Best Shaper. 

South African Heartthrob Davey Van Zyl Wins Vans Pro

While they were in J-Bay, the Stab boys ran into Davey Van Zyl, who just took out the Vans Pro presented by HIC at Sunset over Zeke Lau. Tiph caught up with Davey out front of the Volcom House to talk about… well, you’ll just have to watch. 

Triple Crown Kicks Off Wednesday!

Haleiwa, Sunset, Pipe—It’s hard to overstate just how fuckin’ important the Triple Crown is. For Hawaiians, it’s their chance to defend their home turf against an onslaught of international ‘CT hopefuls. For the visiting pro finishing their year on the Qualifying Series, it’s the biggest platform in the world to make their name, and potentially qualify for the World Championship Tour. 

For the ‘CT, we’re talking requalification, and more importantly, World Titles, and this year, Olympic qualification. While the Title-deciding Pipe Masters doesn’t start for almost a month, the first jewel of the Triple Crown will be won at a Haleiwa 

Blow-Ins Dominate Opening Week Pipe Highlights

That said, two of the best waves ridden this season have been by blow-ins—San Diego’s Skip McCullough and South Carolina’s Cam Richards, followed by back to back near-make pits from Koa Rothman and Nate Florence.

Which brings us to Butter Knives, our look at the North Shore’s best’s most beloved rides”

Jon Pyzel And Nate Florence’s Secret Pipeline Pit Viper, His New Model “The Tank”

This week’s board? Nate Florence’s 6’6 Pyzel Tank, a new model Nasty N and The Pyz have been working on together as Nate has gone from bird-chested grom to a heavyweight contender.

This year, Nathan’s been putting his new model, The Tank, through its paces, paddling the biggest swell of the year at Tahiti and nabbing a handful of keepers on opening day at Pipe. 

Jon Pyzel stops by to demystify The Tank, and scooped our resident to drop a little news of his own about his prized pony John Florence:

Rumors Of John John’s return Have Been Thoroughly Exaggerated

Even though he’s on the heat draw for the Haleiwa Pro, due to start on Wednesday, our Sugarmill social hummingbird assures us John’s definitely not surfing Haleiwa or Sunset. But he did surf today.

At 27, John John has the chance to match his idols Andy Irons’ and Derek Ho’s four triple crown titles—but it won’t happen this year. 

A Tale of Two Boats

There’s been much speculation as to the timing of his return after surgery, especially after his thousand-odd mile sail in September to the island of Palmyra, on his forty-eight-foot, 1.7-million dollar gunboat catamaran, Falcor. But there’s another boat at Pipe people have their speculations about: Jamie O’Brien’s catamaran, which has been parked in front of the walking path at Pipeline for, well, we don’t know how long. 

Kittens and Lions

Sunny Garcia says the North Shore separates the kittens from the lions, and in that spirit each week our hosts and special guests will pick their wins and fails—from ice bath selfies to the Haleiwa Radio Shack, this is the best and worst of the North Shore. 

We’ll be filming on location on the North Shore all season, so look forward to more episodes dropping each week. 

Here’s the show’s roster: 

Film and edit by Sam Moody, Mike Pagan, and Will Stiles. 

Hosted by Tiph Cazalis, Ashton Goggans, and Harry Bryant

Produced by Jodie Nelson.

Directed by Sam McIntosh.

Special guests Jon Pyzel, Davey Van Zyl, and Nathan Florence.

Surf footage by Dylan Roberts, Chad Christenson, and Sam Moody.  

Set design by Miles Pitt.

Design assistance by Marcos “Pasquales” Hootman

Eternal gratitude to Ian Anderson at 38 Print. 

Very special thanks to Vans’ Scott Sisamis, James Munzer, Nolan Hall, and Tanner Rozunko.