Cocaine + Surfing

Cocaine + Surfing PDF Author: Chas Smith
Publisher: Rare Bird Books, a Vireo Book
ISBN: 9781945572814
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
"It's no surprise that surfers like to party. The 1960-70s image, bolstered by Tom Wolfe and 'Big Wednesday,' was one of mild outlaws - tanned boys who refused to grow up, spending their days drinking beer and smoking joints on the beach in between mindless hours in the water... Internally, though, surfing had moved on from booze and weed to its heart's true home, its soul's twin flame: cocaine. The rise of cocaine in American popular culture as the choice of rich, white elites was matched, then quadrupled, within surf culture. The parties got wilder, the nights stretched longer, the stories became more ridiculously unbelievable. And there has been no stopping, no dip in passion... 'Cocaine + Surfing' peels the curtains back on a hopped-up, sometimes sexy, sometimes-deadly relationship and uses cocaine as the vehicle to expose and explain the utterly absurd surf industry to outsiders."--Inside jacket flap.

Cocaine + Surfing

Cocaine + Surfing PDF Author: Chas Smith
Publisher: Rare Bird Books, a Vireo Book
ISBN: 9781945572814
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
"It's no surprise that surfers like to party. The 1960-70s image, bolstered by Tom Wolfe and 'Big Wednesday,' was one of mild outlaws - tanned boys who refused to grow up, spending their days drinking beer and smoking joints on the beach in between mindless hours in the water... Internally, though, surfing had moved on from booze and weed to its heart's true home, its soul's twin flame: cocaine. The rise of cocaine in American popular culture as the choice of rich, white elites was matched, then quadrupled, within surf culture. The parties got wilder, the nights stretched longer, the stories became more ridiculously unbelievable. And there has been no stopping, no dip in passion... 'Cocaine + Surfing' peels the curtains back on a hopped-up, sometimes sexy, sometimes-deadly relationship and uses cocaine as the vehicle to expose and explain the utterly absurd surf industry to outsiders."--Inside jacket flap.

Welcome to Paradise

Welcome to Paradise PDF Author: Laurence Shames
Publisher: Fawcett
ISBN: 0345432185
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
When a low-level mobster and a furniture salesman--each with vanity license plates reading "Big Al"--decide to drive to Florida for their vacations, the stage is set for a brilliantly sharp, funny novel of mistaken identity and tropical crime. "Wickedly inventive".--"The Los Angeles Times".

Reports from Hell

Reports from Hell PDF Author: Chas Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781644280751
Category : Surfing
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
From the author of Welcome to Paradise, Now Go To Hell, a finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for Nonfiction and Cocaine + Surfing A gonzo ride through the Middle East as only Chas Smith, the award-winning author of Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell and Cocaine + Surfing: A Sordid History of Surfing's Greatest Love Affair, could provide. Follow Smith and his misfit band of merrymakers as they search for the true origins of Al Qaeda and endeavor to ride the unsurfed waves of Yemen all while exploring the slim opportunities for fun in the margins of our global war on terror and at what cost--even if it means eventual kidnapping by Hezbollah.

Blessed Are the Bank Robbers

Blessed Are the Bank Robbers PDF Author: Chas Smith
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647005469
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
A rollicking true story of Bibles and bank robberies in Southern California, from a talented and highly praised gonzo journalist Chas Smith grew up deeply enmeshed in the evangelical Christian world that grew out of Southern California in the late 1960s. His family included famous missionaries and megachurch pastors, but his cousin Daniel Courson was Grandma’s favorite. Smith looked up to Cousin Danny. He was handsome, adventurous, and smart, earned a degree from Bible college, and settled into a family and a stable career. Needless to say, it was a big surprise when Cousin Danny started robbing banks. Known as the “Floppy Hat Bandit,” Courson robbed 19 of them in a torrid six-week spree before being caught and sentenced to seven years. When he tried to escape, they tacked on another year. And when he finally got out, despite seeming to be back on the straight and narrow, Cousin Danny disappeared. Banks started getting robbed again. It seemed Cousin Danny might be gunning for the record. Smith’s Blessed Are the Bank Robbers is the wild, and wildly entertaining, story of an all-American anti-hero. It’s a tale of bank robberies, art and jewel heists, high-speed chases, fake identities, encrypted Swiss email accounts, jilted lovers, and the dark side of an evangelical family (and it wasn’t just Danny; an uncle was mixed up with the mujahideen). It’s a book about what it means to live inside the church and outside the law.

In Search of Captain Zero

In Search of Captain Zero PDF Author: Allan Weisbecker
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1585421774
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
In 1996, Allan Weisbecker sold his home and his possessions, loaded his dog and surfboards into his truck, and set off in search of his long-time surfing companion, Patrick, who had vanished into the depths of Central America. In this rollicking memoir of his quest from Mexico to Costa Rica to unravel the circumstances of Patrick's disappearance, Weisbecker intimately describes the people he befriended, the bandits he evaded, the waves he caught and lost en route to finding his friend. In Search of Captain Zero is, according to Outside magazine, "A subtly affecting tale of friendship and duty. [It] deserves a spot on the microbus dashboard as a hell of a cautionary tale about finding paradise and smoking it away." In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road is a Booksense 76 Top Ten selection for September/October.

Welcome to Paradise

Welcome to Paradise PDF Author: Mahi Binebine
Publisher: Tin House Books
ISBN: 1935639285
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Mahi Binebine's courageous novel delves into a world that most readers know only from stories on the nightly news, delivering a compassionate glimpse into the difficulties facing asylum seekers and a striking portrait of human desperation. Mahi Binebine’s courageous novel takes place in Morocco, where seven would-be immigrants gather one night near the Strait of Gibraltar to wait for a signal from a trafficker that it is time to cross. While they wait, their stories unfold: Kacem Judi is an escapee from the civil war in Algeria; Nuara, with her newborn child, hopes to find her husband, who hasn’t been in touch for months since moving to France; and Aziz, the young narrator, and his cousin Reda are severed, in different ways, from their families in southern Morocco. They all share a longing to escape and a readiness to risk everything. Welcome to Paradise delves into a world that most readers know only from stories on the nightly news, delivering a compassionate and striking portrait of human desperation.

Caught Inside

Caught Inside PDF Author: Daniel Duane
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780865475090
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Duane's account of a year spent surfing in Santa Cruz, California. Interspersed with the narrative of days passed on the water are good-humored explanations of the physics of wave dynamics, the art of surfboard design, dexcriptions of the flora and fauna

A Paradise Built in Hell

A Paradise Built in Hell PDF Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101459018
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
The author of Men Explain Things to Me explores the moments of altruism and generosity that arise in the aftermath of disaster Why is it that in the aftermath of a disaster? whether manmade or natural?people suddenly become altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What makes the newfound communities and purpose many find in the ruins and crises after disaster so joyous? And what does this joy reveal about ordinarily unmet social desires and possibilities? In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, looking at major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco through the 1917 explosion that tore up Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She examines how disaster throws people into a temporary utopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities, as well as looking at the cost of the widespread myths and rarer real cases of social deterioration during crisis. This is a timely and important book from an acclaimed author whose work consistently locates unseen patterns and meanings in broad cultural histories.

Sweetness and Blood

Sweetness and Blood PDF Author: Michael Scott Moore
Publisher: Rodale Books
ISBN: 160529098X
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
How did an obscure tribal sport from precolonial Hawaii—one that was nearly eliminated by Christian missionaries—jump oceans to California and Australia? And how did it become such a worldwide passion, even in places where the surf may be excellent but the society is highly conservative or superstitious about the sea? In Sweetness and Blood—a brilliantly written travel adventure—journalist (and surfer) Michael Scott Moore visits unlikely surfing destinations—Israel and the Gaza Strip, West Africa, Great Britain, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Cuba, and Morocco—to find out. Whether he is connecting eccentric surf legend Doc Paskowitz to the Arab-Israeli conflict, trying to deconstruct the terrorist bombing in a nightclub in Bali, or being chased by the German police while surfing a river break in Berlin, Moore masterfully weaves together politics, culture, history, and surfing to create a book like no other.

Tapping the Source

Tapping the Source PDF Author: Kem Nunn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451645554
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST Kem Nunn’s “surf noir” classic is a thrilling plunge into the seedy underbelly of a Southern California beach town—the inspiration for the film Point Break. People go to Huntington Beach in search of the endless parties, the ultimate highs, and the perfect waves. Ike Tucker has come to look for his missing sister and for the three men who may have murdered her. In that place of gilded surfers and sun-bleached blonds, Ike’s search takes him on a journey through a twisted world of crazed Vietnam vets, sadistic surfers, drug dealers, and mysterious seducers. He looks into the shadows and finds parties that drift toward pointless violence, joyless vacations, and highs you may never come down from...and a sea of old hatreds and dreams gone bad. And if he’s not careful, his is a journey from which he will never return.