LFG. The first episode of Stab in the Dark with Ethan Ewing (SITD) is live, and to kick it off we’ve got a three-way heat between Channel Islands, Dan Mann of Firewire and Chilli Surfboards. You can thank Taj Burrow for the matchups.
He architected the ‘heats’ on the plane over to ensure each one was stacked with big names. To give Episode 1 context, it has the only 3x winner in SITD history (Britt Merrick), the reigning champion (Dan Mann – SITDX), and a wildcard in Jason Flanagan, who shaped this board at Surf Formula Factory (SFF) — a large-scale surfboard and PU blank production facility in Bali — as one of the leading shapers in their new collective. “I’ve never designed a board for SITD, but I’ve always wanted to have a go amongst the top dogs,” Jason Flanagan told Stab. “Given the timeframe (about 48 hours), I didn’t have much time to stress, but I did have a suspicion the surfer was EE, so I felt we needed to make something fast. Working at SFF, I’ve finished shaped team boards for major brands, but designing from scratch is a different story. I just focused on keeping it fast, clean, and pure high performance.” You can go deep on the tech specs of the three featured boards at the bottom of this page.
Before then, here’s some words from Ethan on what he wanted out of the SITD experience. “When [SITD] was first offered to me, I didn’t feel like I had enough knowledge on boards. For the past 10 years I’ve basically just ridden Darrens, so I thought, if I’m gonna do it, I’m going to do it properly and come across as someone who really understands what makes a board go. It’s part of my job to know that stuff. “There are so many parts to my career: boards, training, surfing — and I want to be professional about all of it. When you ride the same boards, and you kind of have to mid-season, you’re not experimenting. So this has been really good, just feeling those subtle differences. “I want people to see that I care about equipment.
That I’m not just blasé about it. I want to be able to go to my shaper and properly explain what I’m feeling, what I want to change, how to improve it. And to be able to say that on camera too, because it’s not always obvious what a surfer’s thinking. In previous editions, a lot of the guys surfed great and still scrapped a board. I wanted to make sure it was really clear why. “Having Taj here was insane. He’s a hero of mine. I grew up watching all his parts, my brother was obsessed with him. We never crossed paths on tour, but having someone like that around, with that energy and knowledge, it just lifts everything. Especially with someone of his calibre. “Honestly, it would’ve been a completely different experience without him. Even just seeing how he goes about things. Going forward, I reckon you need him as host. Great energy. Super knowledgeable.”