Stab was set afire by the sparks of potential this month. Can you imagine sitting around in a magazine office, riding covert conversational missiles between other trustworthy men, no trips on the boil, at least no trips you’re grinding out, and, by virtue of various partnerships, in waltzes three world-class batches of photos?

I ain’t never had anything like it in my life, and you know how much Stab likes to truth tell. We might spritz lies around our personal lives, but when it comes to the relationship between magazine and reader, we’re pious as hell.

Let me tell you about ’em. First, a Globe trip to a wave park in the city of Al-Ain on the UAE/Oman border landed. Stab set-off the idea of performance surfing in pools back in 2004 when we dragged the semi-reluctant Taj Burrow and Joel Parkinson to a crappy park in Malaysia. Two years ago, we lit up dreamy park in the Canary Islands with Kolohe Andino, Jules Wilson and so on. Therefore, we were the obvious magazine to partner Globe doin’ the same thing, except this time in a location so perfectly exotic it blends fascism with piety (that word again!), sex with chastity and mindless wealth with asceticism. If you’re a worldly sorta guy, you might’ve seen this trip already through the other magazine partners. Our kink was that while digital cameras were blazing our pal Grady Archbold was banging away on a couple of film cameras. Y’should see the water shot he got with the $10 disposable he bought from a chemist! You’ll upspool with disbelief!

The second spark to light us up was Julian Wilson’s trip to Reunion Island with Jordy Smith. If you remember Modern Collective, you’ll know all about the windy harbourmouth right-hander seemingly created by the benevolent god of airs. This trip was all about shooting an end section for Jordy Smith’s profile movie and the quiet word was the pair would be nailing a double oop. But, surfing ain’t nothing but unpredictable. Julian says he had maybe three or four shots at a section suitable for a double oop. Lances, in the Mentawais, he says, has the most potential. But, nearly two weeks of six-hour sessions with two of the most electric surfers alive, yielded an editor’s nightmare. Too many hits made the job maddeningly overwhelming. You like stale-fishes and you like height? Well, hello!

And, that Kustom Airstrike trip to Indonesia. Tell me, John John Florence, how’s the crown of the world’s best surfer feel? Too tight? Just right? Spin, spin, spin!

This was a magazine edited in an atmosphere of perspiration and horseplay. You’ll like the taste our buzz!
– Derek Rielly.