Document Type
Review
Publication Date
2-7-2019
Department 1
English
Abstract
If you seek a conclusive answer to the question that seems to anchor Chas Smith's Cocaine + Surfing: A Sordid History of Surfing's Greatest Love Affair, "Did surfing and cocaine start together in Peru and never leave each other's embrace?," you will be disappointed. In his preface, Smith discusses the death of Andy Irons, the three-time world surfing champion from Hawaii who died November 2, 2010, alone in a Dallas hotel room of cardiac arrest brought on by cocaine abuse. Irons was thirty-two years old. According to Smith, no one in the cosseted surfing world was surprised: "Drugs and surfing, especially cocaine, felt synonymous with professional surfing those eight-odd years ago" (15). Chapter 1, ironically titled "The Call to Adventure!," places Smith, our first-person narrator, on a hero's journey. [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Ryan, Jack. "Cocaine + Surfing: Reviewed by Jack Ryan, Gettysburg College." Aethalon (2019).
Required Publisher's Statement
This article was originally made available on the publisher's website: http://www.uta.edu/english/sla/br190207.html