Meet The Laydbird Creating Art To Pay For Her Stab High Japan Trip

Nearly a month ago, both adorned in various shades of pink and sporting avant-garde sunglasses, Leihani Zoric and her smiling mother wandered into the glorified Byron Bay garage which houses Stab’s Australian HQ.

Cheerful and unaware, they stopped by with Stace Galbraith, who had kindly offered to introduce them to our troupe of scattered creatives. 

After a few minutes of niceties, surf reports, and the inspired quirkiness often provided by talented 11-year olds, the conversation reached a cul-de-sac.

Amid the silence, Sam McIntosh grinned.

“So, are you excited to come to Japan?” he offered, still smiling.

“What?”

“Well, we’d love to have you at Stab High Japan in a few weeks… think you can make it?”

As surprise, glee, gratitude, and pure childish excitement dueled for sovereignty over Leihani’s face, joyful tears began welling in her eyes. 

“Thank you so so much,” she poured, between excited glances at mom. “This has been a dream of mine for so long!”

Leihani will be 1 of 10 Ladybirds invited to Japan — and has spent the past few weeks selling some of her art to help pay for the trip, alongside some support from Roxy. 

You can see all of the other invites here.

“I’ve just been preparing for the event by surfing my local beach after I get home from school,” she later told us. “Mentally I’ve been trying to block out that I’m entering with no wave pool experience because I know all the other girls have put in lots of time at pools. My parents can’t afford it, so I’m trying to not let it psych me out.

“I don’t really have a strategy, I’m just gonna go as fast as I can and do what feels best.”

The event goes live this Saturday — catch up on all things Stab High Japan, pres by Monster Energy here.