Watch: Vans Stab High Indonesia, Presented By Monster Energy, Episode 1 

Watch more of Vans Stab High Indonesia, Presented by Monster Energy here, Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4.

Welcome to Vans Stab High Indonesia, presented by Monster Energy.

It’s the fifth edition of Stab’s constantly evolving effort to encourage individuals to use surfboards rather than SpaceX to pursue the moon. After two years at BSR in Waco, Texas, we’re back in the ocean for the third straight year — this time, with some big changes to the seafaring format. 

Most notably: We ran proper heats, all of which lasted a minimum of one hour. If you can’t land something in a 60-minute freesurf, your filmer will quietly begin to hate you anyway. 

The heat format evolves as the event moves on. After an anything-goes Qualifying Round, rotations win Round 1, and straight airs win Round 2. For the Final, once again, anything-goes. 

Another change? Judges are mic’d up. Our tower was not made of ivory — instead, it’s wood and crumbling cement — and we get to listen to the panel argue, reason, and opine instead of simply announcing a score. 

We learn that everything which comes out of Nathan Fletcher’s mouth is profound in some way. We also learn that the surfers — who get quite familiar with the microphones as well — do not follow the official WSL post-heat script here. 

This year, on the men’s side, we’ve got Luke Swanson, Chippa Wilson, Eli Beukes, Dion Agius, Mikey February, Koldo Illumbe, Shane Sykes, Micky Clarke, Eric Geiselman, Masato Yukawa, Noa Deane, Matt Meola, Ian Crane, Shaun Manners, Robbie McCormick (Rasta Rob), Erwin Bliss, Reef Heazlewood, Dakoda Walters, Noah Beschen, Mateus Herdy, Bronson Meydi, Rajo Barrel, Kevin Meza (Baja Koala), Letty Mortensen, Hughie Vaughan, Brad Flora, Noah Hill, and Ompu Anwar (Trials winner). 

Meanwhile, the Ladybirds are Caity Simmers, Bella Kenworthy, Sierra Kerr, Quincy Symonds, Maddie Stanton, Bela Nalu, Isi Campbell, and Eden Walla. 

And the venue: Lakey Peak, of course. If your goal is to get a mix of three dozen surfers together for high performance surfing in the month of September, we challenge you to name a better wave than that. 

Episode 1 acquaints us with the location and the format before delivering an intro to this year’s Ladybirds and the Men’s Qualifying Round. The 51 minutes fly by, and you know we’re better than intending for that to be an air pun. 

For some, it’s one step closer to the $20k Grand Prize, $15k Monster Air,  and the ticket to Vans Pipe Masters. 

Vans Stab High Indonesia, Presented By Monster Energy is a four-part series. For the next three weeks, the episodes will air on Stab’s YouTube every Thursday at 6 PM PST.

You can watch Episode 2 of Vans Stab High Indonesia, Presented by Monster Energy HERE.