Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico: Episode 2

Watch episode 1 of the Surf100 Challenge Series Presented by Pacifico here.

Read “Everything You Need To Know About The Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico” here.

Welcome to Episode 2 of the Surf100 Challenge Series Presented by Pacifico, the second strike of our $100,000 surf match.

Last week we lost our first surfer, Noah Beschen, to a case of the post-buzzer blues. With him gone, only seven surfers remain in contention: Jacob Willcox, Mateus Herdy, Ian Crane, Rasta Robb, Eithan Osborne, Cam Richards, and Sebastian Willams.

Only two surfers will survive into Episode Eight’s classic Surf100 finale*, where they’ll face off against two mystery invitees for a chance at $100,000.

Now, let’s reveal the second challenge: a WWI-style battle of attrition.

*Join us for a live screening of the Surf100 finale — Sept 10th at JS Garage in Oceanside, CA. The Pacificos are on us.

Episode Two: Race To The Bottom:

• 100 minutes to lock in their best right and best left.
• Unlimited waves.
• 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.

In the words of local fixer Jacob “Zeke” Szekely, who was mic’d up in the water: “There’s mega ramps. I want to see some big shit. Oooh, I just peed in my wetsuit. It feels good.”

What you don’t see in this episode is how tired the surfers and crew were.

We filmed Episode 1 the day prior, an hour-and-a-half north at HB pier. And even though the longest anybody technically surfed in HB was 100 minutes, that doesn’t account for paddling out seven times at decent-sized HB.

Considering this, it took twice as long as expected to reset after each surfer was eliminated — not to mention managing eight different cameras, coordinating food, traveling, parking, and gauging conditions. Plus, not missing waves, even with eight cameras, proved extremely stressful. The surfers were relatively far out at HB, it was crowded, and we didn’t hire enough spotters. Lessons were learned.

All up, we were down at HB Pier for about six hours, then the crew had to film the end scene, drop cards, eat and charge batteries (biological and otherwise) for the next day’s challenge.

So, it took an incredible amount of willpower to get our crew of 25 from Newport down to an eerily uncrowded Blacks Beach by 6:30 am the following day. There were also worries about the wind, which was highly suspect at first light (see: eerily uncrowded Blacks Beach). Luckily, by the time cameras were rolling, the gusts started to let up. An odd break in the surf production game.

This time, Stab‘s entire Oceanside staff drove down to be spotters — eight total, one for each filmer. Will Stiles, the series’ director, is an understated character — laconic, modest, but competent as all hell. That morning, he deftly commanded his infantry-men to various angles: one on top of a boulder, one on the sand, one in the sky, one who who walked a quarter-mile and scrambled up a rope to perch up on sandstone cliff.

The Pacific feared Will’s demanding gaze too. We got wedgy, large (for California), and exciting Blacks Beach to ourselves for 100 minutes — and got out of there in time for lunch. We over-prepared and (thankfully) under-panicked.

The crew, that is.

This episode’s ending was especially tight and tense for the surfers. Both of the bottom two competitors were visibly nervous, frustrated, and angry at heat’s end. After careful review of the clips, our judges made a decision.

Perhaps you’ll disagree with the results, and that’s ok. Yadin’s DMs are wide open.

Surf100 presented by Pacifico release schedule

Episode 1:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, June 5th at 5 PM PDT on stabmag.com. Subscribe to Stab Premium here.
YouTube release: Thursday, June 12th, at 5 PM PDT on Stab’s YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel here.

Episode 2:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, June 19th at 5 PM PDT
YouTube release: Thursday, June 26th, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 3:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, July 3rd at 5 PM PDT
YouTube release: Thursday, July 10th, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 4:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, July 17th at 5 PM PDT
YouTube release: Thursday, July 24th, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 5:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, July 31st at 5 PM PDT
YouTube release: Thursday, August 7th, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 6:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, August 14th at 5 PM PDT
YouTube release: Thursday, August 21st, at 5 PM PDT

Episode 7:

Stab Premium release: Thursday, August 28th at 5 PM PDT
YouTube release: Thursday, September 4th, at 5 PM PDT

Classic Surf100 Final Broadcast With Live Scoring: September 10th on stabmag.com. Must be a Stab Premium Member to vote.