Watch Julian Wilson, Harry Bryant, Mikey Wright, And More Warm-Up For Stab High Japan Presented By Monster Energy
Episode One of Poolside, brought to you by Kona Big Wave.
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The event will be broadcast live on stabmag.com and the Stab Premium app at 5 pm on May 23rd and 24th (PDT), or 10 am on May 24th and 25th (AEST). Sign up to watch here.
At about 2,400 miles from the equator, Shizuoka’s summertime climate is mercurial — with days of sub-tropical humidity followed by cold rain squalls which evoke memories of New Zealand or even California.
Over the course of this week, groups of eager Stab High contestants have been filtering from the mechanical fingers of Tokyo’s sprawling urbania towards the sleepy Shizuoka prefecture — taking taxis and bullet trains under the watchful eye of Mount Fuji.
“Man, this is gonna be so damn fun,” laughed Ian Crane, as we stumbled through the Haneda airport. “The new section is insane — that Christ Air that Ryji did had him looking like he was floating.”
When I spoke to him last week, Jacob Szekely said he believes success at this year’s event will come to those who are able to adapt quickly to the McFly section.
“I do think everyone will be going huge,” says Zeke. “It’s just gonna be a matter of who can figure it out quickly. On new sections, the most important thing is being able to adjust your timing. I don’t want to sound like a fucking QS dork, but I like going in and looking at the clips and analyzing my timing. Maybe that’s not core, but it works for me.
“Looking at the ramp, the wave isn’t exactly the same every time,” continues Zeke. “It’s close, but sometimes you’ll just get sent extra high or extra far to the flats on some. Being able to adapt is so important.”
To see which surfers have figured out the section (and who hasn’t), click above to watch our first episode of Poolside, presented by Kona Big Wave — and click here for everything you need to know about Stab High.
Special thanks to our Stab High Japan 2025 Presented By Monster Energy sponsors: Monster, Sun Bum, YETI, Skullcandy, Kona Big Wave, Oakley, PerfectSwell, Xcel, and FU Wax.
