The Year Cocaine Washed Up in France | StabMic Ep. 28 | Paul Evans

“Between Christmas 2003 and New Year 2024, packages of cocaine started washing up along the beaches of Southwest France. National television news reports carried the story of the coke de la plage — the beach cocaine, around a month after the first local rumours of finds emerged. One TV report on France 2, 30th Jan 2004, stated one-and-a-half tonnes had been recovered along French and Spanish coasts that month. If that’s just what the authorities had found, it’s safe to assume lots, lots more had been picked up by members of the public, mostly surfers.” - Paul Evans. Our guest this week is WSL commentator, Surf Europe editor, Stab contributor, and, as of a couple of weeks ago, the creator, producer and host of a long-form narrative podcast about cocaine. It was late 2003, and Paul had recently moved to southwest France from the UK, initially seduced by the prospect of good, uncrowded waves and rumours of mystics like Tom Curren and Robbie Page having made a life there. A few months later, bundles of pure Colombian cocaine started washing up on the beach. Paul first heard about it from a hitchhiker he picked up. The man had travelled several hundred kilometres from Toulouse and seemed remarkably determined to reach the coast that day, despite the weather. It had something of the sirens about it: a gift from the sea that was difficult to resist. Only here, instead of a beautiful song and certain death, it was exceptionally pure cocaine washing up on the beach, floating around in the lineup, offering a direct challenge to your capacity for restraint. What followed was a summer of abundance, debauchery, good waves and various forms of personal ruin, eventually building to a crescendo at the Quiksilver Pro France in 2004. The waves were pumping. Bruce and Andy Irons met in the final. The afterparty that followed, you'd have to imagine, given the situation and what was essentially being handed out to all, was fairly substantial. As Paul says in the podcast: “It’s kind of cliché… everyone refers to their youth as the best times in the world, but objectively, some of those people are right.” If you’re partial to good, uncrowded waves, a cacophony of beautiful women, and happen to possess even a passing curiosity about the sensation of your mouth going numb after sampling some uncut Colombian cocaine, then you’d have a hard time arguing against this as a purple patch in the history of mankind. Humanity has definitely had worse summers and here, Paul talks about how he went about telling that story. This is the making of Hossegor Beach Cocaine, told by its creator, Paul Evans. his is the making of Hossegor Beach Cocaine, told by its creator, Paul Evans. You can listen to the episode one for free here. Episodes 2-4 will live exclusively on Stab Premium and the Stab Premium app. Thanks to our partners at Red Bull, Vaer, Dome Dust, SlowTide, TurtleBox, and Devium, for making StabMic possible.