If you don’t follow surfing, it means nothing, but if you do it means everything.
Andy Irons, 3x world champion surfer from Kauai passed away yesterday in a Dallas Hotel Room from Dengue Fever. He was 32 and on his way back to Kauai after withdrawing from the Rip Curl Pro in Puerto Rico due to illness. He left behind a wife with a baby on the way.
Irons was the only Hawaiian ever to win more than one world title. He was the only real competition for Kelly Slater in the 2000′s. His career seemed to be cooling down until a 2009 win at Teahupo’o. Everyone was looking at him and saying “he’s back”. I thought that ten years from now I’d still be watching videos of him surfing – he’d be like Tom Curren is now, travelling and giving aged wisdom.
The smaller sadness is that Kelly Slater’s tenth world title, the big 10, is only days away from being won. All of the happiness is drained out of that for everyone. Despite all of the trash talking Andy did, he wouldn’t have wanted to ruin Kelly’s 10th.
It makes me emotional. I’m not a celebrity person and I know I never really knew him but I felt like I did.
Mahalo for all your surfing AI. Aloha.
The drugs alprazolam and zolpidem were named in a police report on the three-time champion
The Honolulu Star Advertiser yesterday said the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office had found methadone in a vial labelled for zolpidem.
Texas medical examiner Nizam Peerwani said today the cause of death might not be known for several weeks
Denge Fever???????