Parker Coffin Discusses His Burning Desire To Be In Stab High

Stab High 2.0 is only a couple weeks away and the excitement level is building. Surfers are working to get spots, the Stab crew is killing themselves putting together the finishing touches, and the internet naysayers are getting ready to unleash their negativity.

Parker Coffin is amped. He spent last year watching from home, then started making moves to make sure he got an invite this time around. 

Stab: I hear you wanted into Stab High pretty badly. Why’d you lobby so hard for a spot?

I watched last year, and I went when it was first opening, and I could see the potential of the place. I had a feeling, when I first heard there was an event there, that it was gonna be the sickest event ever.

And, of course, Stab High absolutely crushed it while I sat on the couch at home, on my birthday actually, and watched. I was just thinking the whole time, like, “Fuck, I want to be in this thing one day.”

Tim English, from Monster, ended up doing a trip over there a little bit ago. With a few of the riders and I was lucky enough to go. The whole time I was remembering all the rad stuff that went down at Stab High, how good everybody was surfing, and how cool of an atmosphere the whole thing is, and, honestly, just how bad surfing needs something like that right now.

That’s where I would always go with it, in my thought process. It’s the perfect opportunity right now, for something like Stab High to be coming along. Because it’s so different from everything else out there right now and I think it’s really fun to see the world’s best freesurfers compete in an environment that is really catered to them.

It’s catered to big cool airs and a good time and, I don’t know, that’s something I thought was rad and wanted to be a part of.

Who are you most excited about seeing in the pool?

I had a lot of fun watching Noa last year. I just thought he looked really confident and gnarly and he was doing those front-shuvs that I hadn’t seen too much of. And I know that he’s someone that’s probably looking into this and looking at new things that he can bring to the event. Because he’s so fucking good at surfing.

I’m a huge nerd on Chippa too. Chippa’s, like, skateboarding on water and I don’t see too many people that look that technical on a surfboard. He’s always one of my favorite surfers. 

And Mason… to me, last year, I felt like he was doing some of the gnarliest shit, for sure. And for whatever reason, it felt like it was sliding under the radar. And I know that Mason is competitive and I know he’s gonna be coming in this year fired up to do some cool stuff.

Those three, for me, are just really exciting surfers, in general. But to watch them go ham on a perfect air section in a pool… I can’t wait to see it.

Ever think you’d be this excited to take a trip to Waco, Texas to surf in a contest?

I mean, these wave pools, they’re just fun. Once I heard there was a wave pool going in, in Waco, I knew I was gonna go, eventually. But to be packing a board bag… it’s definitely… it’s an interesting feeling going on a surf trip to Texas.

But I love it. It’s so fun and different. A lot of the places you go as a surfer, as different as they are, they still kinda seem similar. And Waco, Texas is just as far out of the ordinary as you could possibly get.

Where are you off to right now?

I just got home from West Oz and Indo and I ended up getting a gnarly staph infection. So I haven’t been surfing at all. So I’m getting ready to just go down and hang out at Lowers for a few days and surf my brains out and feel like I can stand on a surfboard again.

Go drop in on people, get burned a million times, and get the blood pressure up a bit…

Exactly. You know the drill.