ANDY IRONS
THE MESSIAH
HISTORY:
Ironwood Pines dot the idyllic shoreline of Haneleia, Kauai. In the shade of these Ironwoods is where newly married Californian ex-pats Phil and Danielle Irons chose to live and raise their offspring in the late 70s. Andy waddled over the sandy-needles that led to his backyard break of Pinetrees, wearing a path for his brother Bruce who exited the womb a year after him. The pair scrapped in the surf and the Hawaiian schoolyard pushing each other to performance heights. Alongside fellow child prodigies Chris Ward and Tim Curran appeared in the Jack McCoy grom flick Alley Oop, defining the supreme yet sometimes erratic natural talent pool of America in the post-Slater era. Andy was a tough uncompromising kid who, by age 17, had beaten then-Hawaii's greatest ever pro surfer (Pipe Master and World Champ) Derek Ho to win the HIC Pipeline Pro. A year later he was the World Junior Champ and among the youngest ever WCT debutants ...
PRESENT DAY:
He fell off the world tour horse a year after that and was branded a precocious hot-head, yet the old adage that "those with most talent take the longest to find wisdom" didn't apply to him. Like Pottz and Occy before him, Irons was not going to sit down and listen to claims of him being just the best free-surfer on earth, or the best surfer never to win a world title.
On Andy's return to the bear-pit he shook the critics off like so much dust, winning his first world title with a blistering charge. Surfing at breakneck speed with focused recklessness. Incomparable strength that flexes with nature, just like the Ironwood trees he grew up under. He won three world titles in a row, the first surfer to consistently outsurf and outwit Kelly Slater. Their rivalry, still today, being one of surfing's greatest.
In '06 Slater took him out the play for his eighth title and then halfway through '07, still with a good shot at the title, Andy seemed to lose interest and didn't score better than a 17th in the last five events. At year's end Andy married long-time partner Lindy. Though rumours abound he's disinterested, as any Slater-watcher knows, this is fuel to the motivational fire of a true champion, and could well see Andy dutifully clip on his phoenix wings and rise from the ashes to collect his forth title.
