A rollicking true story of Bibles and bank robberies in Southern California, from a talented and highly praised gonzo journalist.NAMED A BEST TRUE CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWChas 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'...

A finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for NonfictionWelcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell, is surfer and former war reporter Chas Smith’s wild and unflinching look at the high-stakes world of surfing on Oahu’s North Shore—a riveting, often humorous, account of beauty, greed, danger, and crime.For two months every winter, when Pacific storms make landfall, swarms of mainlanders, Brazilians, Australians, and Europeans flock to Oahu’s paradisiacal North Shore in pursuit of som...

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 B...

Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell, is surfer and former war reporter Chas Smith's wild and unflinching look at the high-stakes world of surfing on Oahu's North Shore—a riveting, often humorous, account of beauty, greed, danger, and crime.For two months every winter, when Pacific storms make landfall, swarms of mainlanders, Brazilians, Australians, and Europeans flock to Oahu's paradisiacal North Shore in pursuit of some of the greatest waves on earth for surfing's Triple...

A gonzo ride through war-torn Yemen 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 any cost—even if it ...

The long-awaited autobiography of one of Australia's surfing legends.On the surface he was Tom Carroll, dreamer, cheeky grommet, brilliant surfer, Australian sporting hero, fitness fanatic, businessman, family man, big wave charger. Inside turned the terrible wheel of drug addiction, part family curse, part legacy of the footloose surf culture he’d done so much to legitimise. Tom’s family and friends struggled with him, kept his secrets, and looked on in anger and ...

Bali: Heaven and Hell is a lively cultural and social history of Australia’s favourite holiday island. Detailing the island’s tumultous and often violent past, its mythology, religion and politics, and the last 50 years of western colonization and modern development. It is a place that both appeals and repels. Together with substantial knowledge and research of the island’s early history, Phil Jarratt has plenty of personal first hand experience from the early 70s Bali and...

A no-holds barred memoir by Gary 'Kong' Elkerton: champion surfer, world class party animal, and, in his own words, 'a half-mad ball of pure aggression'.In the world of pro-surfing, personalities don't come any bigger than Gary 'Kong' Elkerton. Born in Ballina and brought up on a prawn trawler, Gary took to surfing when school, discipline and other conventions failed him. Cutting a swathe through the industry, living the life, getting the girls, taking the drugs - it all added up to...

Jay Moriarity was a big wave surfer whose positive spirit, relentless dedication, and respect for his sport earned him the admiration of the entire surfing world. Although, he lost his life just one day before his 23rd birthday, he is still an inspiration to not just the surfing community, but to countless people that he met in his life. This book examines his life, but more importantly, it also examines Mavericks and surfing; to understand his life, it's important to understand ...

****Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography**Included in President Obama’s 2016 Summer Reading List“Without a doubt, the finest surf book I’ve ever read . . . ” —The New York Times Magazine**Barbarian Days is William Finnegan’s memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way ...

A true insider's story of the Backpacker Murders from the detective who led the team that arrested Ivan Milat.Milat - the serial killer who preyed on young hitchhikers. The backpackers - the innocent victims of a brutal murderer. Belanglo - a place that became synonymous with pure evil.It was the biggest and most complex manhunt in Australian history, an investigation that gripped a nation. Behind the many false leads and dead ends, precious clues emerged t...

Girt. No word could better capture the essence of Australia...In this hilarious history, David Hunt tells the real story of Australia's past from megafauna to Macquarie ... the cock-ups and curiosities, the forgotten eccentrics and Eureka moments that have made us who we are.Mark Twain wrote of Australian history: 'It does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies ... but they are all true, they all happened.' In Girt, Hunt uncovers these beautiful li...