Your Subjects Are Not Your Friends - Chas Smith

Chas Smith is a luminous figure in surfing, an adept journalist, and author. Born in San Jose, California in 1976, Smith’s family uprooted and landed in Coos Bay, Oregon where he learned to surf. After studying intercultural studies in undergrad, Smith graduated with a master’s in linguistics, going on to study in Egypt and at Oxford. Following a story he published in Australia Surfing Life about surfing in Yemen in the wake of 9/11, Smith went on to report in Lebanon, Somalia, Israel-Palestine, and wound up a captive of Hezbollah reporting for Current TV. In the early-aughts, Smith worked for Vice. Soon, he joined Stab magazine at the behest of Derek Rielly, then editor-in-chief, and they set in on an unparalleled era in surf journalism. Some of Stab’s more controversial content garnered unsavory public spats that earned Smith some anti-Semitic epithets, and then in 2014, Smith and Reilly began Beach Grit—a deep well of incendiary, tongue-in-cheek honesty drenched in satire, sans filter. He’s now a regular contributor to The Surfer’s Journal, with bylines at Esquire and Playboy, and the author of Paradise, Now Go to Hell, a cultural vignette of Oahu’s North Shore, which was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for Nonfiction.

The Kyle Thiermann Show is a blend of conversations with intellectual athletes and athletic intellectuals. If you're new here, try starting with #96 Albee Layer, #139 Matt Taibbi, #157 Peter Attia, #206 Chris Ryan, #216 Rick Hanson, #233 Steve Rinella, or #340 Mark Healey.

Kyle Thiermann is a journalist, copywriter, and sponsored surfer for Patagonia. His work spans from editorial (Men's Health, Surfer, Outside) to creative (Patagonia, Yeti, MUD\WTR). He has written billboards above LAX, viral commercials seen by over a hundred million people, and steered better-for-you brands to cultural relevance with breakthrough advertising ideas. Kyle is represented by DiFiore Literary Agency and is in the process of publishing his first book.

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