Stab Magazine | Once One Of Surfing's Brightest Young Talents, Chas Chidester Is Dead At 28

Live now: How Surfers Get Paid, Season Finale

1661 Views

Once One Of Surfing’s Brightest Young Talents, Chas Chidester Is Dead At 28

The surfing community mourns another drug-related loss.

news // Apr 18, 2018
Words by stab
Reading Time: 2 minutes

He was the small, stout kid that surfed better than everyone three times his age.

By the time he was five or six Chas Chidester was already owning all the old guys at the Seal Beach Pier. Not only did he have the talent, he had the style and charisma.

He was that little kid that the old salty guys wanted to be friends up. Everyone knew he was going places.

It wasn’t long after Chas got the Pier Bowl wired and started making waves in NSSA comps that his family decided to move to the North Shore.

His old man was a grit-smoking hammer swinger, who relished surfing 15-foot Sunset on a Brewer gun with no leash.

Chas, as well as his brother Peyton, dutifully followed suit. “Surf like a man,” was a family creedo of sorts.

They moved into an old, green house on Ke Nui Road, not far from Rocky Point. Chas got sponsored. He ripped alongside today’s luminaries like John John Florence and Mason Ho.

He was the underground cat, always on the verge of making it. From Pipe to Sunset, he went as hard as anyone, but he loved spots like Lani’s and other secret nooks and crannies where he could just go out and have fun.

Chas won the Under 18 division of the Surfing America U.S. Championships in 2006, beating eventual World Pro Junior champ Kai Barger in the final. In 2008 he finished 13th at the Lowers Pro. But just as his career appeared to be on the up and up, demons crept in.

Like hundreds of thousands in the US alone, the evil of opiate addiction shook Chas to the core, but he battled valiantly. 

Chas struggled with the cycle of abuse and getting clean. His sponsors dropped him. His profile waned. His rap sheet grew. But his heart never strayed. Chas had a heart of gold.

On the North Shore last December, he was back in the water, pulling in deep at Backdoor, bagging clips with his pals Mason Ho and Sheldon Paishon (see above), and reconnecting with a lot of old friends. By all accounts he was healthy and happy.

But it’s been said that every man has his cross to bear, and for Chas, today the weight of addiction finally became too all-encompassing. The details of Chas’s death remain unclear, but what is clear is how profoundly he touched so many lives, and the heartbreak he leaves behind.

Chas was a talented surfer, great friend and loving son and brother. His life won’t be defined by the darkness, but rather by his light. He’ll forever be that little grom on the inside wedge at Seal Beach, or that guy at Rocky Point that just blew your mind.

Chas will be missed, but he was larger than life and he certainly won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

 

 

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

Watch: ‘Haiku’

Scenes From a Remote Reality, by Vans & Karina Rozunko

Mar 25, 2023

Sun Room: The Overnight Success Of A Young Surf Band

What's it like touring the world and living off of McDonald's?

Mar 25, 2023

How Surfers Get Paid, Episode 6

An instructional manual for the modern professional surfer

Mar 23, 2023

7:03

Caity Simmers — Extreme Competitive Surf Vlogger

Cool is chemical.

Mar 23, 2023

Globe Pulls Out Of The Apparel Game

…and, Taj Burrow and Dion Agius are now looking for new main sponsors.

Mar 22, 2023

Owen Wright Announces Retirement From Competitive And Heavy-Water Surfing

But will surf final CT event at Bells.

Mar 22, 2023

29:05

Fancy An Ale, Some Good Music, And A Bunch Of Tubes?

Ballet's minimalist full-length will satiate your needs.

Mar 22, 2023

João Chianca Spent Seven Years On The QS Without A Sponsor

And look where he is now.

Mar 22, 2023

Take Stab’s 2023 Audience Survey, Win A 3-Board Quiver

Stab towels and Premium subscriptions also up or grabs.

Mar 21, 2023

Jessi Miley Dyer On The New Challenger Series Schedule And More

Did you know that you could miss the mid-year cut and still theoretically win the…

Mar 20, 2023

5:05

Don’t Miss The Last Wave Of The First 2023 SEOTY Entry

Jacob Willcox's ‘Into Dust’ just set the bar.

Mar 20, 2023

Warren Smith on New Welcome Rivers Range and Buying Jaguars on Facebook Marketplace  

Now available in the Antipodes...

Mar 20, 2023

5:13

Wavegarden Spills How The Sausage Is Made

BTS of their global air wave rollout ft. Yago Dora, Dion Agius, Reef Heazlewood and…

Mar 18, 2023

Minds, Machines, And The Magic Of Hands

How modern shapers split their time between designing files and hand-finishing boards.

Mar 18, 2023

3:31

Are Hectic Lefts The Final Finless Frontier?

William Aliotti is on the right-foot-forward fringes.

Mar 17, 2023

Watch: Luke + Eddie

A mostly unknown, on-duty lifeguard won the most prestigious big-wave event in history. How Luke…

Mar 17, 2023

7:10

A Pipe Master, Ryan Burch, And Some Pickle Forks On The Eastern Seaboard

This one ticks a lot of boxes

Mar 16, 2023

Brazil Has A Talent Problem

And three other things we learned from the Rip Curl Pro Portugal.

Mar 16, 2023
Advertisement