Hot Trunk Summer: Stab x SurfStitch’s Multi-Splendored Boardshort Guide.

Stab High was the drop in the pond that rippled into the biggest annual rager (and wave pool jump comp) we’ve ever thrown, and we’ve facilitated a bash or two.

Seeing as we were taking over Waco, Texas for the weekend: surfers, cocktails, ramps, wedges and all, we decided to curate our take on the season’s best boardshort offerings from all the brands that make our world go ‘round (as an aside, if you’re scratching your beanie-itched head and staring at the arctic tundra out the window, fear not as we’ll have a collection of the world’s finest wetsuits dropping soon). All the surfers were there, all the sponsors accounted for on the beaks of our brave ramp-hunters, and surely they’d all have the latest trunks in their duffels, right?

Stab fav Shano Borland wears RVCA.

Well you know what say about assumptions being the mother of all… but that’s why we love our favourite aquatic man-children. In the water they shine bright like youthful diamonds, and on land, well let’s just say there’s a little to be desired. What ensued was a calamitous few days of chasing surfed-out, half-cut shredders around the edge of the pool, candidly snapping them rocking the garment that makes the male surfing planet spin. Even for those paid to surf the sight of a perfect left and right wedge spinning off every few minutes is too much to resist, and short attention spans lessened, making for a logistical nightmare, but some wonderfully candid shots (and plenty that needed censoring), and Hot Trunk Summer, the Stab produced film up top.

Aquatic ray of sunshine Noah Wegrich, wearing the latest from O’Neill.

If we’re talking trunk trends then ’19/’20 year could well be pegged as the season that we all(most) decided on the universal best length trunks to surf in. Nearly all our surfers favoured trunks lightly kissing the kneecaps—depending on stature and poise—and subtle colours and prints were the choice in decoration. We’ve long preached Henners Ford’s mantra (any colour so long as they’s black) as the guiding light when it comes to trunks, and whilst our flame for the most universally wearable colour scheme still burns bright, to be honest it’s refreshing to see a splatters of colour around the traps. As temperatures soar, NSW burns and uncertainty abounds, one thing you can guarantee is that it’s gunna be one Hot Trunk Summer—may as well greet the apocalypse with a jig in a great pair of trunks.

The irresistibly likeable Shaun Manners, in Billabong.

Head here to fulfil all your summer boardshort desires.