WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN Rip Curl Pro Search Pays Tribute To Fallen Brother Andy Irons By Nick McGregor
Today dawned much differently than any other day of the Rip
Curl Pro Search. Overcast. Gloomy. No sun. Very little wind. Eerily quiet.
It’s almost as if the whole natural world — the ground
below our feet, the ocean lapping at our ankles, the winds swirling around us
— was aware that our surfing existence has been shaken straight to the
core. Jarred by the tragic news that three-time ASP World Champion Andy Irons
passed away on November 2nd on his way home to Hawaii.
While the ASP postponed competition at the Rip Curl Pro
Search, every single surfer on both the Men’s and Women’s World Tours turned up
for a memorial paddle-out in Irons’ honor. The flags on top of the scaffolding
lay still. The small waves breaking out at Middles limped slowly to shore. And
as hundreds of surfers somberly paddled out to pay tribute to Irons, an
unprecedented silence blanketed the beach. Heads down. Eyes averted. Hugs and
handshakes given freely. Tears shared. Just not a single word spoken.
There will be no parties in Puerto Rico tonight. Or
tomorrow. Or next week most likely. Even if Kelly Slater clinches his 10th
world title, how can anyone celebrate when one of surfing’s greatest warriors,
one of the ASP’s most beloved brothers, one of our generation’s most iconic
figures, has tragically passed away at the far too young age of 32?
The speculation and conjecture and mourning and crying will
last for some time. Days, months, probably years, maybe decades. But for today,
for this one late-morning November hour, flowers were sprinkled in Andy’s
honor. A Hawaiian flag flapped in the softly increasing breeze, tied from the
end of the walkway so every memorial participant had to pass it on his or her
way to the water. Driftwood was fashioned into a massive A.I. on the sand, with
a Pipeline Posse T-shirt in the center going up as a peace offering to the surf
gods who will surely welcome Andy with open arms.
Kelly Slater sent his girlfriend Kalani out on a Werner Vega
longboard, before swimming out to join her. Mick, Bobby,
Dane, Jordy, every last one of them carrying a bouquet of their own. Roy
Powers gave a speech a quarter-mile out to sea that will probably be remembered
forever, even without recorders or reporters taking notes to transmit it to the
world. After the paddle-out, Dusty Payne fought back tears. Sterling Spencer
stood off to the side, speechless, transfixed on the ocean. As if there were some
answer out there to this excruciating pain. This numbness. This emptiness.
This silence. No announcers on the microphone, no mid-heat
banter, no speakers throbbing with music. A thousand or so people on the beach,
and not a sound to be heard, except the wind whispering quietly and the waves
breaking gently. Those were the sounds that mattered to Andy more than anything
— and today, they were all we could hear.
The memorial circle broke up after a few minutes, but that
eternal circle for Andy will never be unbroken. As everyone made their way back
to the beach, some dropped in on group waves to embrace the tribal qualities
that unite us as surfers. Some paddled away from the pack to have a few quiet
moments to themselves. Still others moved back to Middles’ main peak to catch a
few rides. Laying down turns. Linking sections. Fully ripping — even with
tears streaming from their eyes.
After all, Andy wouldn’t have wanted a perfectly good lineup
to go to waste.
THE OLD IN-OUT
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