gosblog-eng: Andy Irons: the bad guy?

Andy Irons: the bad guy?

Apart from what goes on behind the scenes and all the gossip that will be spread about his death, we searched the Internet for the many interviews and articles about him, to try to understand if he was really an ice-cold, arrogant competitive animal as he was depicted.

Three-times world champion Andy Irons died on November 2, 2010, at 32, from complications of an unknown illness, presumably dengue fever.

Irons passed away during a layover en route to Kauai, Hawaii, after withdrawing from a competition in Puerto Rico, the Association of Surfing Professionals said.

He began his professional career in 1998 and won three straight world titles from 2002 to 2004 and is the only surfer to win at every location on the elite tour, where he collected 20 victories. He last competed in September in Tahiti.

On September 3, 2010, in TEAHUPOO, Andy Irons won the Billabong Pro Tahiti, besting C.J. Hobgood in an explosive final clash in three-to-four foot (1.5 meter) waves at Teahupoo. The Hawaiian was emotional when regarding his first win in over three years (won Rip Curl Pro Search Chile 2007). “I did it!” Irons exclaimed. “I surf because I have to put my jersey on some time. I took a lot of losses, but I put in the hard work too. I dedicate this win 100% to my wife, Lyndie, she is everything to me and without her, I’d be nothing. I really, really like competing because I love to win and I feel on top of the world today. I surf because I love to win. I love this feeling.”

Irons opened up with a massive, freefall wipeout before utilizing his unparalleled backhand tube-riding skills to net a 14.67 out of a possible 20 and collect the win.
“He (Hobgood) paddled me inside and caught the first wave,” Irons said. “The next wave was better and I just fell out of the sky. I thought my board was going to break. It has two buckles on it already. I just went after it out there. C.J. is so dangerous here. I knew he would be getting tens or twos, and I was lucky it was twos today.”
Mark Occhilupo, the 1999 world surfing champion, said that Irons had struggled with dengue fever since first contracting the viral disease in Bali, Indonesia. “When he gets run down it comes back,” Occhilupo said in a televised interview with Australia’s Fox Sports News. “Somehow he tried to get home and he didn’t make it. Words can’t explain it. He was such a vibrant and lovely person to be around.”

Here’s part of an interview of Andy Irons with Surf Transworld magazine (2004) after he won his third world title. You can tell, from his words, that he was probably misunderstood and his reputation as a fierce competitor was affected by the media’s attitude towards him.

Q: “How has surfing for a living affected how you feel about it?” A: Surfing for a living is the one thing I knew could keep me surfing. Even if I wasn’t a pro surfer, I was always going to be surfing–even if I was working a job, I’d make sure it was around surfing. Getting paid to go surfing is just icing on the cake.
Q: “A few days ago you surfed against Layne Beachley (six-time women’s world champ who was given a wild card to surf in a four-star WQS event) at Newcastle”. A:(Andy laughs.) Oh, f–k yeah. That was weird.
Q: “How was that?” A: Nightmare. From where I’m at right now, that was one of the lamest things I’ve had to do. And the media over here (in Australia) is so hyped up on it, and they made me look like such the jerk.
Q: “Really?” A: Yeah, full media entrapment bullshit. I was doing this press conference for them, and there was this female reporter asking me why do I think men get paid more money, and why are the men so much more marketable than the women. So I just answered the questions the best I could, and they put it on the front page of the newspapers–”Sexist”–and they made me look like a full dick. It was so lame. Down on the beach, some people were just trippin’ on me. They made me look really bad, and it made me never want to do an interview again.

(you can view the whole interview on: http://surf.transworld.net/1000002602/features/the-dynasty-the-andy-irons-interview/)

Here’s part of another interview of Andy Irons with Surfermag.
Q: “Do you feel like the world champ yet?” A: It's weird. I do but I don't. Even now. When I think of world champions I think of the guys you just mentioned and I don't feel like I fit that mold, so it's really hard to feel like I'm wearing the shoes.
Q: “But obviously you're having a bit of a problem playing the bad guy, which begs the question. Why not just play along with that role until you're no longer perceived as that guy?” A: Well at first I was playing into it. I was fine being the nemesis you know, being the up and coming kid, and I liked feeding into it. I deliberately said a few stupid things like, "Kelly's time is over." But it's funny because I totally underestimated the kind of stink those kinds of comments can create. The drama became way too much for me. After a while it didn't feel like playing around. Q: “So lets be clear, you don't think he's (Kelly Slater) washed up?” A: [Laughs] I know he's kicking ass. (…)
Q: “There definitely seems to have been a movement to portray you as the bad boy in black opposite Kelly the superhero in white. (…) But you just see it for what it is, right? Just media hype?” A: I try, but like I said it's hard when you become the focus of all this negative energy, and people are saying things about you that aren't true. There are still times when I feel pretty insecure about things and want to turn away from all the microphones because I feel like people are thinking, "Awe, this kid doesn't deserve it." You know, Kelly's perfect in every way and I'm this guy with all these flaws. It's hard. It can be overwhelming. You read a Sports Illustrated article that calls you out and insults your family and it's like, man, is the whole world conspiring against me? I know they're not, but it feels that way after you win a title and every single article you read is about the guy who lost.

(you can view the whole interview on: http://surfermag.com/magazine/archivedissues/bgissaiintrvu/index2.html)

We would like to remember Andy while, as a surfer and a man, he shows his commitment to environmental protection at a Surfrider Foundation meeting in Ostia.