(Unlocked) Stab Edit of the Year: Soli Bailey Stars in ‘Conehead’ 

In our mid-year check-in for Stab Surfer of the Year, Soli Bailey put John + Nate Florence in the shade. 

Seeing the full stringout of his performances at Shipsterns Bluff, Cloudbreak and shallow water waves of truth that feature in ‘Conehead’, you can see why. 

2024 has been Soli’s year.

That’s not to discredit anyone else’s accomplishments, btw. But ‘Big Fucking Barrels’ are the Kuwaiti Dinar (world’s strongest currency) of surf cinema and Sol’s cash value here equates to a small fortune — some of which he’s put to use on a surfless European vacay with his recent fiancee. 

Sub out the word ‘Jesse’ in the below text for ‘Soli’ and you have a portrait of the man.

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“After that Maps to Nowhere trip I was claiming I’d scored the best waves of my life already. Then my mate called and he’s like, ‘WTF are you talking about. No you didn’t. You just keep bettering and bettering it’. Which is true. I’ve had a really special year between home, Tasmania, Fiji and Indo. And it’s all happened in really quick succession, which is pretty rare.”

If you want to hear Soli think, you can read his interview with Stab last week. It covers: beating JJF and Bruce Irons at Pipe, his CT tenure and his indigenous heritage among other things. 

Or if you would let his surfing do the talking, watch his Stab Edit of the Year 2024 entry — aptly named ‘Conehead’ — above.

It had to be re-edited multiple times (s/o Dan Scott) on account of how hard Soli kept scoring.

You can watch the rest of 2024’s Stab Edits of the Year so far here: Levi Slawson, Sierra Kerr, Hughie Vaughan, Conor Maguire… with more on the way.