Andy Irons

 

Just the saddest day today.

I found out earlier that Andy Irons passed away during the night. He wasn’t in my circle of friends but was someone that I admired from afar. His surfing was amazing and full of bravado. He could do all the new school stuff but it was his application to waves of consequence that really separated him from the pack.

There was a brash confidence in his early days and I don’t know if the professional spotlight was kind to him. In fact in my eyes the glare of it burnt him.

His break from the tour when the challenges of life caught up seemed to introduce a new humbleness to his persona. He just seemed like one of us but with a gift to surf beyond the norm. And this guy was a mile beyond the norm.

Last year I had the good fortune of seeing this for real in a very serious ocean.

I was checking the surf from  a remote cliff top when Andy and Joel Parkinson turned up to surf a beast of wave just out the front. This wave is short and sharp and allows no room for error. Some peel through, others shut down on the reef. This reef has “penalty” written all over it. At the size it was that day it far beyond my ability level. This was “A” league stuff.  For an hour I watched these two take huge drops and get deep, thick barrels with graceful ease. I knew it was special at the time but now it is a surfing moment that I will treasure forever.

I find it remarkably sad when one of life’s champions leaves early. From the coverage on the net the surfing community is missing him already and who knows the pain and sadness that his immediate family and heavily pregnant wife are feeling.

If I’m searching for a bright side to this then to you Mr Andy Irons I commit to approaching life’s situations with a hefty dose more courage than ever before.

Ride on my man, I will see you on the flip side.