Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell - A True Story of Violence, Corruption, and the Soul of Surfing

A finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for Nonfiction

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 Crown competition. Chas Smith reveals how this influx transforms a sleepy, laid-back strip of coast into a lawless, violent, drug-addled, and adrenaline-soaked mecca.

Smith captures this exciting and dangerous place where locals, outsiders, the surf industry, and criminal elements clash in a fascinating look at class, race, power, money, and crime, set within one of the most beautiful places on earth. The result is a breathtaking blend of crime and adventure that captures the allure and wickedness of this idyllic golden world.

What happens when paradise is a front for a criminal underworld?

Localism and Violence: Discover the unwritten laws of the Seven Mile Miracle, where respect is the only currency and outsiders pay a heavy price for breaking the code. The Billion-Dollar Surf Industry: Go behind the scenes of the glossy corporate surf world, a place where multi-million dollar deals are made and broken with back-alley intimidation. The Infamous Eddie Rothman: Meet the enigmatic founder of Da Hui and the North Shore's feared enforcer—a man whose reputation alone can bring a billion-dollar company to its knees. Unflinching True Story: From a former war reporter who traded Beirut for the Banzai Pipeline, this is an immersive, first-person account of a paradise rotten to the core.