This morning I was sitting here editing pages for What Youth Issue 9 (deadlines and shit) when photo rookie Quinn Matthews quit chasing French girls long enough to send us a batch of images from France. I flicked through and who should I see but Evan Geiselman! I immediately picked up the phone and dialed the only Floridian area code I had in my phone.

WHAT YOUTH: I’m sitting here on deadline and I got this little batch of photos from Quinn and I thought I was looking at a fucking ghost. I was like “What! Is that Evan Geiselman?? Where the hell have you been man?

Evan Geiselman: Dude I’ve just been being a redneck in Florida, hanging out.

Fuck, you were all over my life two years ago, flying all over the place, shredding…

Yeah I moved back East a year ago to cruise and surf. I’ll be moving back out there to California in January again though.

So what are you doing in France? 

Yeah, Brother called me asking where I was. I had been having a shocker and he was like, “Dude, you have to come and fucking surf. We’re going to France,” and I was like “Ok cool, I’m coming.”

Been surfing?

We’ve just been surfing a bunch. The surf had been kind of smaller so we have had some fun days filming for Brothers movie and been trying to get some clips slowly, but it’s been real fun, we’ve just been hanging out.

When did you move to Florida?

I moved back there two years ago during the US Open kinda. I just got rid of the house in San Clemente and just I got everything back to Florida. And, fuck, just the WQS and just being home and…fuck, thats about it. Fishing, a little bit of hunting. Redneck stuff. You know when you’re in California you see everyone, popping in and out, saying what up to everyone every week. When I’m in Florida you can’t do that as much.

Was it refreshing? Do you feel recharged and psyched?

It is pretty epic and it’s why I’m looking forward to getting back to California in January and getting my roots back out there. But it was epic I’d never been to the house I have in Florida so I’ve been living on my own and there is so many other things you can do that you don’t get to do in California so that’s what I have been enjoying the most.

So you’re all back into country music?

Oh yeah, I’ve got the country music thing too. Everything’s been cool. You forget about it, I was out in California for 4years and I was young so going back I had forgotten about a lot of what it was like in Florida.

Sometimes forget you’re a good old Florida boy. It sounds like your accent is back.

A little bit. It’s not as thick as it used to be, I’ve definitely lost a lot of it.

A slight Hobgood tempo, following right in their footsteps.

That’s good, I’m happy about that [laughs].

Do you feel like you’re surfing good? I mean, like I said, I haven’t seen you surfing in a while so I was fired up to see those photos.

I feel like my surfing has been fine but it’s kind of like I want to make the final really bad when I surf comps, so it’s always in the back of my mind got that going and I think that pressure isn’t working for me. So I think it’s something that I need to enjoy more. Just enjoy the process of it a little bit and not think it’s going to happen over night.

How’s the QS? What’s the story on that lately?

Fuck that thing sucks.