PHOTO: Neville

When we spoke to Craig he was just home from Europe before coming to California, then New York and New England.

Europe didn’t end well. Craig is a kind soul and to move against him is an awful sin, and a Frenchman had sinned. It happens everywhere.

CRAIG ANDERSON: I’ve been home since last Friday, so almost a week.

WHAT YOUTH: Coming from France?

I was in France, yeah. I was going to head back to Cali or go hang in New York but I was just over France, and had a terrible last day, and just flew home. Changed my ticket.

Blake said there weren’t many waves.

Aw, it was the worst trip ever. I’m always claiming worst trips ever but dude it was horrible. The vibes in France were real bad. I don’t know. Just had a terrible time, the waves weren’t very good and didn’t really get along with the French people, or appreciate their presence.

The French surfers?

Just every surf we’d go for, Dane and myself, people would just paddle rings around us and I don’t know, I just didn’t have a good time there. The last time I was there I got punched in the face in the ocean, it was like the wildest experience ever. I couldn’t believe it, was so baffled.

Ah that’s too bad, I’m sorry. Fuck, that’s happened to me like twice as well and it just ruins your frame of mind for a while.

It just bums me out that people get that upset in the ocean. It’s where you need to just be at peace and have fun and be all relaxed, and this guy was so angry. And I didn’t even drop in on him. I checked my inside, did like a cutty on this two-foot sloppy shitty wave, paddled out and he was like yelling at me in French. I didn’t even understand what he was saying. And all of a sudden he just lunged forward and punched me, it was so wild. So yeah, I hadn’t been home in ages so I was psyched to just get back here for a moment.

Update: Within hours of publishing this, four French surfers had emailed us to apologize to Craig on behalf of their countryman — which simply illustrates the goodness of the French and the fact that this episode is the ugly exception, rather than the beautiful rule. Vive la France.