And you guys bonded, right? It seems like you and Eddie have maintained an amicable relationship.
Yeah, he got a copy of the manuscript from Scott Caan, the actor in Hawaii Five-0, because when Scott gave it to him it was a rough, rough, rough draft, then Eddie came over to me and was like, “You got this one wrong, this one wrong, but it’s pretty good. It’s pretty funny.” Then he started talking to me about Monsanto and that soapbox deal, and I wrote a piece for Playboy about Eddie vs. Monsanto, and then we were amicable and it was all good, and then after that it fell apart quickly. So we are not on speaking terms anymore.
I thought you had a pretty great analogy asking people to imagine Jeff Bezos being beaten up in his own home without consequence, which is what apparently happened on the North Shore. It puts the system of justice into more concrete terms.
It still fascinates me. Again, as awesome as the North Shore is when you’re there and how careful you have to be when you’re there, I would never want that to change. That’s what makes the North Shore the North Shore.
So what system of justice do you think is right? Do you think that vigilante style vs. the Supreme Court is a real debate? Towards the end of your book, I kind of had that Donnie Brasco feeling: “Here’s your medal, sir. Thank you for your service.” And it’s meaningless.
That’s it, I think. It’s totally weird, but it’s the last place at least that I’ve ever been that feels that way. And it feels that way partially because justice is in the hands of individuals who are not part of the justice system. They’re self made or have been made by the community, but they’re not tied into the regular policemen or judges. They’re just guys.
I interviewed you after the Mick Fanning deal, and you dropped a Hunter S. Thompson quote on me. “You never know where the edge is until you crossed it.” Do you think you’ve ever crossed it?
I don’t know yet. I think I haven’t, because I’m still here.
I think you’d probably know.
Maybe in book number two. I don’t think I have yet, though.
What’s the tattoo on your neck?
It’s my wife’s signature.
Your new wife? That was pretty heavy. You said in your book that “there is a gun to my head, and I hate my wife.”
Yeah. I really do hate that wife. I don’t like that one. This is the good wife. So I was living in Australia…I think it was actually when we talked last time. Yeah, I planned to stay in Australia and came back and started working on Who Is JOB, and I met her the third night I was here and had her name tattooed on my neck by week three and we were married after a few months. That was it. Real quick.
Those were details you included in Welcome to Paradise that I found pretty interesting. I mean, on one hand, that was character development. On the other, it’s actually your life. I thought it was cool you shared it.
It’s funny. A lot of people have said something to me about it. I just wrote it. I had been thinking about it, and it was true. I hated her then. Ahhhh! And a lot of people have reacted to that one sentence, which is interesting to me. That’s one sentence that stands out.
Well, I appreciated it. Otherwise, for better or worse your work has influenced a lot of the work that I’ve done in surfing. From the Fascist Issue stuff to the Mick Fanning episode and beyond. Another being the topic of reporting on the true story of what happened with Andy Irons. At one time, you publicly denounced it. In the book, however, you said you want honest reporting around the issue. So where do you stand and why?
When he died I was of two minds. Of course, I wanted someone to cover it. I wanted to cover it. I wanted to cover it in its depth without pulling any punches at all, and I started the process of interviewing and all that stuff. And you know what it’s like interviewing people in the surf industry. It’s impossible to get anyone to say anything interesting or true or meaningful, and so it was annoying me because I was trying to do it, and that’s when the Outside Story came out. And I think I got mad. I think I was probably jealous on one hand a bit, but also frustrated, because I think it wasn’t an Outside story. It should have been a surf magazine story.
What I didn’t like specifically about that story was the real sort of self-serving, “drugs are bad,” surfing’s wall of silence, that sort of stuff, which to me didn’t help. Or it didn’t add anything to that story. In my mind, Andy’s story was almost Greek-like in the fall of a hero.
I thought the Outside piece just made Andy kind of pathetic. Just a drug addict dude who was brought down by his addictions, and then surfing’s hand in that. It wasn’t the piece that I wanted to read, and I didn’t think it was true. I didn’t think it was the true, full picture of what that whole time was. So my response to that was, “Okay, let’s all just shut up.” If we’re not going to do this right, let’s just keep our mouths shut. Let’s just close ranks and shut up. And then in thinking about it more, of course, and as a reporter either do it right or to the best of your ability or don’t do it all. It’s not that Brad didn’t do it to the best of his ability, but at the time I felt it wasn’t as good as it should have been.
I think that a lot of that resentment or characterization of the insularity of the surf industry is rooted in the crazy things that happened after the fact. I mean, the idea that Billabong distributed a press release immediately after his death that patently lied is crazy. There’s an analogy to be had there that could drive that home for anyone.
It is crazy. I would love somebody to do that book. Or write a big piece in Vanity Fair or something and really, really, really look at the issues and spend time with it. And again, not that Brad didn’t do that, but I just thought it was a quick and easy assassination of the surf industry without deeper ideas attached to it. Because I agree with Brad on so much. It’s just ridiculous. The surf industry bubble is destroying what’s good about surf.
You wrote in your book, “The surf industry is blah. Blah blah blah.”
Yeah….haha.
It’s good. Ha. So you also wrote a bunch of stuff about how you hated The Inertia not too long ago. Do you still feel that way? I didn’t take it personally, but what’s up?
No. It’s funny. It’s real weird. I guess that’s why I do shit stir. That’s why I think John John should throw barbs at Kolohe. And they should get together afterwards and have a drink. There’s something about competition that I think is really fun. And I love it when people get involved in that. So if I can say, “The Inertia sucks, and they’re a bunch of high horse surfers, and whatever they don’t want anybody to make money…” And I love that you responded in a way that was fun, and then people can get involved and say, “Go Inertia!” Or “Fuck you, Chas Smith!”
And I guess we almost had the same conversation about the nazi issue a while back, and I’ll admit – and when you asked if I crossed the line, I did cross the line there. I was younger, and of course I’m going to make mistakes, but the part that I’ll stand by on that and calling out The Inertia at Surfing Magazine, is that it’s fun for a minute. It’s fun again for people to take sides and throw rocks at each other. It’s like a snowball fight. I don’t think it ever hurts. And then you go get beers afterwards.
It’s super fun. I love it when even in sports, it’s this guy vs. this guy, and then later on, years pass and they’re bros and they remember the times that they fought. That’s just the stuff of legend there. That’s what I love. And I think in my own stupid way, I’m trying to create these little rivalries for other people to catch up on so people can have some fun again.
You said Welcome to the North Shore, Now Go To Hell was your swan song to surfing. Somehow, I doubt it.
Yea. Ha. I really want it to be. Book number two is about war journalism. I always want to write in surf or do stuff for the surf world, but my days are numbered as a real surf writer.
Does that phrase make you cringe?
It used to. I hated it. When someone referred to me as surf journalist or surf writer, I’d say, “No! No! No!” but, now, I totally love it. I think I’ll always want to be called a surf writer no matter what I’m doing.
Support Chas Smith’s boat neck t-shirt fund, buy a copy of Welcome to Paradise, Now Go To Hell. And read our review here.
