Chad Goes Deep, the stoke guy
Raising stoke levels
If you've seen a guy on Instagram talking about stoke like it's a spiritual practice, you've probably met Chad. His account is @chadgoesdeep, and his bio on his link page sums it up: "I'm a comedian and stoke lord. I'm here to make you stoked!" We're Stoke Club, an indie surf rock band from Newport Beach, Southern California, with the word in our name, so we're fans.
The character
Chad Kroeger is a comedy character played by the comedian Tom Allen. He works with his partner JT Parr, played by John T. Parr, as the duo Chad and JT. FLOOD Magazine describes the two as comedians from San Clemente, working in Orange County.
They started by speaking at city council meetings. According to BroBible, one of their early bits was asking the San Clemente city council, in 2017, for a 12-foot Paul Walker statue on the pier. Others argued against house party bans. They called it stoke activism. It grew into a podcast, Going Deep with Chad and JT, and a six-episode Netflix series, Chad and JT Go Deep, released in August 2022.
Stoke activism
Chad treats stoke as a mission. On the Ellen DeGeneres show in 2019, reported by The Inertia, he said "our main mission is just to raise stoke within the nashe." JT gave the definition we like best: stoke is "like this feeling you have in your heart where you know that life is really legit. Like a ripe avocado. Or like, a compliment on your tan."
In FLOOD, Chad described their approach as "radical kindness, and maintaining an 'aura of stoke.'" Under the jokes, that's a real idea. It's close to what surfers mean when they talk about sharing the stoke, which we wrote about in Stoke in surf culture.
Three reels
- Does stoke lie just beyond the clouds? From June 2025.
- The stoke of the dog will keep you resilient in tough times. From October 2025.
- Find your stoke in the now. From April 2026.
Our take
Chad plays a certain kind of Southern California guy, and the whole act is built on radical kindness. He wants everyone to feel good. That's the part of surf culture worth keeping.
We have no connection to Chad or JT. We just like the word as much as he does. If you do too, listen to Polaroid, and come to a show. You can sign up to get invited on the Stoke Club shows page.
We're Stoke Club, an indie surf rock band from Newport Beach, Southern California. All our songs and upcoming shows are at stokeclubband.com.