Craig Anderson, fabulous in misery! NSW

Craig Anderson has been a slow, but very sure, recovery from injury. After hurting his knee in California while staying with Dane Reynolds and working on his sickeningly good film, Slow Dance, Craig took two weeks outta the water before surfing again. Which, it turns out, wasn’t enough. Soon, he couldn’t bottom turn without collecting a sharp jab of pain in his hinge.

Craig’s doctor in Newcastle told him that during the corrective procedure, he’d simply remove the lateral meniscus (where the tear was). But, once he got in there and assessed it, he ended up repairing it instead. Had he removed the meniscus Craig would’ve been outta the water for three weeks. But when you repair it instead? Up to three months of dry gills. Upshot is though, repairing carries a way, way lower risk of arthritis in later life than removal does.

Craig’s been home for five months now, his longest stint in some time. He’s been uncharacteristically hitting the gym, and he’s back in the water, killing it as y’can see here. This overcast dropped wallet pulls a background into focus that is actually around a kilometre away. “It looks like he’s surfing The Cliff here, but it’s actually Merewether,” explains our shooter in this instance, Zac Heath. “I’ve been working on this angle for a while from standing on the shelf at Merewether in knee deep water looking up to Bar Beach.”