The Patti Party is Going to Stab High

We've been aware for some time that despite spending much of the year in landlocked Colorado, 11-year-old Patti Zhou is quite at home in the line up. In March 2023, just after Patti debuted her public speaking talent at Dew Tour, Stab (both surfing's philosophical pundit and moral conscience) posted a video of Patti ripping at the wave pool at Waco.

Originally from Beijing, Patti now spends her winters in Summit County riding at Copper Mountain. The Woodward parks have been a proper training ground for the prodigious young rider and her snowboarding skills seem to go effortlessly from halfpipe to jump to rail.

Of course the Waco clip made it known that Patti's abilities are not dependent on the state of water beneath her feet.

Stab officially announced that Patti will be a member of the 2024 class of Ladybirds at Stab High June 22 and 23 (you can watch live on Stab's website). This year's contest takes place at Perfectswell Shizunami , a wave pool very close to the ocean, south of Tokyo.

The announcement includes a brief interview with Patti, in which she explains her interest in doing a crippler on her surfboard and echoes our understanding of surfing's trick names.

"I really want to try a crippler. In the halfpipe it's called a 540. I don't really know what it's called in surfing...maybe it's called an inverted full rotation...but anyway, I really want to try it."

We were planning on tuning into Stab High already, because it's summer and what else are we going to do, but now we're even more excited to watch Patti Party do what she does best: have fun while making it look easy.

And we're looking forward to her soundbites, too.