Cocaine and Surfing

For readers of Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis, the Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort, Mp: the Life of Michael Peterson by Sean Doherty, Occy: the Rise and Fall of Mark Occhilupo by Tim Baker.

There is a certain cultural allure about surfers - they look like clean, bronzed athletes who love nature and tread lightly on the earth. But there has always been the darker side of surf culture, dating to early days of the competition circuit. Chas Smith explored some of that bad behaviour in his first book but now he's being more explicit: cocaine and surfing are in a permanent pas de deux, and it makes for one hell of a story.

Surf trade shows in the 1980s were flooded in cocaine. The surf tour of the 1990s had every virtually every competitor racking rails with the judges and the media before paddling out for heats. And in the new 21st century it has become completely untethered. There have been overdoses, bar fights, surf contests and murders and cover-ups all within the last three years and all fuelled almost purely by cocaine.

Cocaine's place in surfing's past is storied. Its place in surfing's present is undeniable. Its place in surfing's future is certain. There is something all too similar in riding a wave and smashing a bump. The rush is intense and beautiful and all too short. Altogether, it is a great untold story and Smith has interviewed everyone who matters, dug into the vibrant history, and exposed the inherent hypocrisy/cover-ups to create a rip-roaring ride through surf culture that is enthralling, hilarious and utterly fascinating.

About the Author

Chas Smith is a regular contributor and editor at large at Surfing Magazine, and has also contributed to Vice, GQ, Blackbook, Stab, the New York Times T Magazine and BeachGrit. The first to surf mainland Yemen, Osama Bin Laden's ancestral homeland, directly after 9/11, he's written about fashion in Somalia, debauchery in Azerbaijan and terrorists in India. In 2006, Smith covered the conflict between Israel and Lebanon and was kidnapped by Hezbollah. His first book, Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell, was published in 2013 in Australia by Black Inc.