Welcome to Paradise

图书信息

作者	Smith, Chas
出版社	It Books
ISBN	9780062202543
出版时间	2013-11-01
字数	36.3万
分类	Chas,It Books,进口书,外文原版书,小说

读书简介

A finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for NonfictionFor two months every winter, when Pacific storms make landfall, Oahu's paradisical North Shore turns into a fiery hell. Its normal population of sixteen thousand more than triples and this explosion of mainlanders, Brazilians, Australians, and Europeans creates one of the most combustible milieus on earth. Waves, like gold and oil, are a limited resource and, as such, are fiercely fought over by the visiting hordes, the surf industry, other Hawaiian islanders, and North Shore residents. The otherwise sleepy North Shore becomes a lawless, violent, drug-addled, and adrenaline-soaked mecca.It takes uniquely fearless men to paddle into thirty-foot waves breaking over a razor-sharp reef hidden beneath three feet of water. Death and maiming are regular occurrences during North Shore winters. Yet when the sun dips, the fearless become truly scared. You see, the ocean has rules. The men who haunt the land do not. And so they whisper about helter-skelter violence dished out by larger-than-life Hawaiians. They whisper about being choked, slapped, and bloodied for breaking unspoken codes of conduct. About the protection money extracted from the surf brands that want to hold their contests on the North Shore. About drug running, fights, and maybe even murders. And then they return to multimillion-dollar beachfront homes and drown their anxiety with cocaine and booze. But they know they are not safe. Because no one is ever safe here.The surf world is far more volatile and complex than outsiders know or popular depictions would have us believe, and the North Shore during winter is its most extreme representation. It is downright dangerous but also exhilarating, and this story paints a true picture of what it feels like to be in the middle of it all. It is both a breathtaking and wildly funny tale of beauty, wickedness, and the unyielding allure of ocean waves in all their glory.

目录

Dedication

Contents

1 Beirut, Lebanon, 2006

2 The North Shore, Oahu, December 2009

3 Birds, Boats, and Past Loves. Or, from Beirut to Bondi.

4 The Thoughts Your Actions Entertain. Or, My First Impression.

5 There Ain’t No Motive for This Crime. Or, Welcome to Paradise.

6 I Know You Are the One, Yeah. Or, We Can Collide.

7 Addicted to a Certain Kind of Sadness. Or, I Don’t Even Need Your Love.

8 Everything About This Is Real. Or, a History.

9 The Joy Formidable. Or, Here We Are, in the Dark.

10 No One Laughs at God. Or, It Ain’t My Backyard.

11 Don’t You Want to Share the Guilt? Or, Waves Are Oil: an Interlude.

12 Fade into Darkness. Or, Eddie.

13 Girls, We Run This Motherfucker. Or, a Wander and an Explanation.

Photo Section

14 You Said That You Could Let It Go. Or, a Contest.

15 I Found a Wallet. Or, Back to Town.

16 I Let the Bad Ones In and the Good Ones Go. Or, He Wasn’t Here for a Long Time; He Was Here for a Good Time.

17 He Came from the South of Sweden, He Spoke Just Like a Dane. Or, V-Co.

18 You Are Not Invisible Now, You Just Don’t Exist. Or, Surf Houses: an Interlude.

19 And Now Your World Is Here, Watch It Disappear. Or, Kai Garcia Is a Zen Thug. Or, Full Consumption.

20 Let’s Go to the Beach, Each, Let’s Go Get a Wave. Or, Let’s Do This One Last Time.

21 Burn Them Bridges Down to the Ground Because I Won’t Be Coming This Way Again. Or, a Postscript.

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher