RIP Andy Irons
A tribute to the competitive career of the formidable Hawaiian surfer.
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About the first time I picked up a surfboard in 2001, professional surfing was in the throes of a new school revolution. Kelly Slater had dominated the ASP World Tour for five years before retiring in 1998 but in the three years leading up to my waveriding initiation, Occy, Sunny and Ceej had all laid claim to surfing’s most coveted title. The World Tour was anyone’s game and anything seemed possible.
Then in 2002, the first year of the ‘Dream Tour’, a 25-year-old surfer from Kauai, Hawaii, soared to victory and roused Slater out of his competitive slumber. Six years Kelly’s junior, Andy Irons was the epitome of everything I loved about surfing: youth, talent, attitude and fun. He had it all. And the style and power with which he surfed stoked Slater’s competitive verve to the point of combustion. The next year he rejoined the tour.
But despite Slater's much-hyped comeback, the unthinkable happened. He did not win. And atop the podium everyone thought he would stand supreme, was the bad-ass autodidact from Kauai. Slater vs. Irons was a rivalry that would define competitive surfing for many years to come. Irons would win the world title again in 2004 but by 2005 Slater had done enough to oust him from the top spot for good – albeit by a meagre 45 points.
But Irons didn’t do a Machado and opt out of the tour a defeated man. He came back in 2006 and thwarted Slater at Pipeline in one of the most incredible finals in the history of the ASP World Tour. Despite Slater's comfortable lead, Irons dropped into Backdoor in the closing minutes of the heat and tucked into a barrel that left the surf world reeling. “[He] shot out at light speed,” reported Surfer Magazine. “And with the judges holding up scorecards of perfect 10s, Irons pumped his fists hard as the crowd leapt to their feet and shrilled a glass-shattering cheer.”
It was a high point. But every crest must fall and the next couple of years were dark for Irons, who fell from competitive grace almost as spectacularly as the way in which he had risen. Many commented that he had “lost his fire” and after a terrible performance in the Quiksilver Pro France 2008, he failed to show up for the following Mundaka event and announced shortly after that he would not compete on the 2009 World Tour at all.
Everyone had an opinion about Irons’ disappointing departure. 'Too much partying,' sceptics speculated. 'Family commitments,' came softer suggestions. But perhaps Joel Parkinson, a man familiar with slogging his boardriding guts out, empathised best in Stab Magazine. “I hope he comes back with flying colours,” Parko said. “But, fuck, he’s been doing it for 13 years. It’s a fucking gruelling tour. He should do what Kelly did. Kelly took three years off, came backed and smoked ’em. Andy with two years off, he could come back if he wanted and… it’s not like his surfing talent is going anywhere. It’s only the planes, trains and automobiles killing him on the road. Thirteen years of it.”
And true to the prophecy, Irons returned to the World Tour this year, albeit as wildcard, with a new positive outlook, eager to show the world his fire was still burning bright. The hush around Irons grew to a Teahupoo-worthy roar this summer, culminating at the Billabong Tahiti Pro, which he won with turns that recalled the golden days of yore. In a twist of symmetry, Tahiti was also where he won his first ever WQS event in 1997, aged just 18.
He told Transworld Surf in an interview in September: “Five events in and I got a win — I still can’t believe it! It was radical, once I knew I’d won, I really wanted to be alone for a little while so I paddled outside the lineup to have a minute by myself and I got all teary-eyed… I haven’t really had time to enjoy it yet… It’s time to put the jersey back on and get back out there… Hopefully I’ll be able to keep the momentum…”
But it was not to be and a mere two months later Andy Irons, conqueror of fierce waves and fierce competitors, the firebrand hell-bent on winning the moon, died in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas – halfway home to Hawaii and his wife Lindy, who is seven months pregnant.
In a fast and furious life, Irons achieved more than most and his death follows a remarkable comeback that implied a wiser, calmer and more content man had emerged. In a video uploaded 20 days ago by Billabong, Irons reflected on the ups and downs of his tumultuous career and his reasons for surfing. These last words should be his:
“When I was young I surfed because Kelly Slater did it. I surfed because it was hyped. I surfed because it got chicks. I surfed because it was the party… And I got all those cool things and they all just became ‘stuff’. It’s all about the feeling I get from riding waves… That first wave is the reason I think everyone keeps going back."
- Andy Irons (July 24,1978 – November 2, 2010)
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RIP Andy Irons (text) by Shelley Lee Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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