Andy Irons At Cloudbreak
Andy Irons At Cloudbreak
'Notes From The Margins'
Over the course of a surfing life ideas and concepts arise and disappear, fleeting thoughts jotted in imaginary margins, filed away till a photo flickers a memory, noted here before being lost again.
Andy Irons at Cloudbreak remains one of the great high points of the act of surfing in whatever realm you want to place it: art, sport, way of life. Despite the introduction of Indonesia to the World Tour via succesive contests at Grajagan in '95, '96, and '97, generally considered to the be the start of the Dream Tour concept, it was always anchored in heavy water contests in the Pacific Basin. Cloudbreak, Teahupoo, Pipeline. Domination there meant multiple world titles à la Slater and AI. Eventually the Cooly kids cracked the code and clocked up Titles. Taj Burrow never did.
Of course, with the restructured tour finishing at Trestles, domination, or even competitiveness, on the Pacific reefs is no longer a necessity for winning world titles.
It was only twenty years ago - a blink of the eye for most sports - but it's amazing how little record remains of that era. Contest reports are sparse and incomplete, even basic information like results is hard to find. The video record is likewise piecemeal and arbitrary. Historians of the sport will struggle for reliable source material when it comes time to properly document the greatest rivalry and arguably the greatest era the sport has ever known and – as we move into a petro-state-sponsored wavepool epoch - will ever know.
The First Coming of Slater was a total bloodbath as he first dispatched an Old Guard whose aggression and tactics (contact, blocking in Greco Roman context) were a flimsy defence against superior techniques, new manoeuvres, and board designs they couldn't ride. Meanwhile, his New School compatriots lacked competitiveness (Beschen excepted) and the legacy Aussie write-off approach offered scant resistance.
The Second Coming of Slater was a different story. AI had both the competitiveness, the skill set across heavy water, and the new school manoeuvres to disrupt another easy ascent.
Derek Hynd described Slater's contest approach as the “theme of good tidings in peaceful waters with his harmony guide Jimmy Buffet soothing the way. The Kelly gospel is man-on-sea; man-on-man doesn't come into it. There is no conflict, no combat, just time, shrinking time, to focus and refocus on the next wave in line. Great for dealing clean croupier heats, poor for pandering to the nature of sport as first practiced in Greece and Rome - an alternative to male rape and civil war."
Arguable and maybe overblown, but seeing Kelly in tears in the shower post-Pipe loss to Irons in Jack McCoy's 2004 Blue Horizon and multiple minor meltdowns following in-your-face performances from Adriano De Souza suggests truth lies in the Hynd analysis. Mostly all lost to the sands of time now though.
Which makes the photo above of Andy in full flight at Cloudbreak an even more valuable artifact. The stylised crest to trough body extended snowboard carve requires elements from wave, surfer technique, and board design which have become rare and likely to become even rarer.
A carve of this magnitude won't ever happen in a wavepool - there just isn't enough wave height or space to perform it.
The confidence, even arrogance, of Irons on display here defined his three in a row titles won largely at the expense of Slater. It wasn't sustainable, as similar attitudes from Brazilian champions have proven to be unsustainable. In Andy's case, the arrogance led to hubris, the feelings of invincibility feeding into character traits which led to full blown drug addiction.
The crash after the three titles was profound, even with all the available masking from sponsors and a compliant surf media the public could see he was a shambolic shadow of his former self as the second half of the first decade of the new millenium wore on.
2009 was a sabbatical from the tour after unsuccessful stints in rehab. By 2010 he was back on tour for a final doomed attempt at professional surfing.
I was in the water with him at Teahupoo the day before he won his last competition. The famed Irons intensity was completely absent. Was he baked on opioids, Oxycontin being his drug of choice? It seemed that way. He sat silent and serene in the line-up, occasionally rousing himself to call someone into a wave. He rode less than a handful of waves in the hours before sunset.
61 days later (November 2, 2010) Irons was found dead in his airport hotel room in Dallas, Texas. Months later, The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office concluded that Irons died from a cardiac arrest due to a severe blockage of a main artery of the heart. The official autopsy report lists also a second cause of death as "acute mixed drug ingestion", listing alprazolam (Xanax), methadone, benzoylecgonine (a metabolite of cocaine), and traces of methamphetamine as the drugs found in Andy's body at the time of his death.
Days later Kelly had his 10th Title, followed the year later by his 11th and final World Title in 2011.
If we go back to Cloudbreak and the photo above, Slater's continuing dominance of the Tour, especially in the absence of Irons, highlights another piece of the puzzle. This time with board design.
Irons use of a classic length (6'10” - 7'0”) narrow-tailed channel bottom, almost certainly an Arakawa of South Pacific lineage (think: Al Byrne, Murray Bourton) marks the end of an era. Slater's dominance at Cloudbreak, especially in 2013, on 5'9” roundtail quads, changed the equation permanently for the pros in pumping surf.
Short equipment is now favoured right up to massive surf, then full-size guns. Pros will ride 6'3” at maxing Mainbreak and Sunset, before switching to 9'0” plus guns.
The middle-ground, classic step-up length board has become functionally extinct at pro level and has mostly resisted hipster revisionist takes - despite remaining a staple in the committed recreational surfer's quiver.
The effective rail line, the six-channel narrow-tail, the surfer himself. All gone now and part of a scarcely remembered history.
Cloudbreak remains the timeless constant and with the tour returning there for 2024 the photo above shows a performance peak that has yet to be equalled, let alone surpassed.
// STEVE SHEARER
Comments
Is that photo even in competition? Looks to be free surfing to me. Slater in 2013 was the 'performance peak that has yet to be equalled' out at Cloudbreak.
Kelly was extraordinary in that event
Disagree Owen rewrote the rule book at Cloudbreak and was on some voodoo level I have never seen in competition
Owen was great and got multi sick barrels but Kelly's carving and lines through heaving sections was jaw dropping
Timeless image, fantastic reflection Steve. Nice.
AI on a frontside cuttie fade back stance looks pretty darn pleasing to the eye too!!
What a loss. AI, the boards, the surfing. And what a photo! Nice piece too, Steve.
As someone who loves boards from 6'6 to 8'0, I think it's a real shame not to see pros riding that size range.
Unlike Gabe, totally agree with you IB. ;-) Would love to see them on bigger boards when appropriate (pumping CB etc.). Great piece Steve.
Agreed,two and three stage bottom turns in decent waves suck.
Channel Bottom with Glass on Fins
The Snowboard Turn !
Yeah beautiful looking board
That's the one...
More of this stuff on swellnet please!
No matter what you think of Andy and his drug taking ways, the fact that he died literally a few weeks before his son was born and his son now never meeting his dad is very fuckn unfair and sad for everyone involved.
100%
With all the resources at his command, the selfishness at the centre of his demise is hard to get past.
100%. The whole thing is just a shame
Strong article and stronger historical points! Mohammad Ali wiped out the old guard They said there would no one greater Then Mike Tyson arrived! There is always room for another to rise with hunger and determination. We need the wild bastards to get past the rich kids parents at the local boardriders clubs first
agree you have to have rich parents to get to all the comps that’s what’s happening here only spoiled brats have a chance
What a great summary of an era with many nuanced observations! I love articles like this, succinct and tight.
Thanks
Fantastic turn!
Fully utilising his skill and the shapers’
Prowess.
Mesmerising!
No idea why this link isn’t posting?
It worked Don.
so good thanks
My fav clip of AI at CB, that turn on the last wave…
That last wave! Holy shit!
Unbelievable.
Insane. Absolutely insane.
Phwoaaa.
That is nuts …so powerful …
Fantastic article, thanks Steve and Swellnet. I certainly miss seeing this sort of powerful surfing on the tour. I remember watching Andy in his younger years, surfed from the trials at Surfest all the way to winning the main event. I couldn’t believe how fast and powerful he was, and doing big functional airs. RIP AI.
Great read. Thanks FR.
Reflecting on surfing's short history, this piece really puts into perspective that we've lived through the formative years of surfing...it's infancy. It's only 2 or 3 generations old....still so young that people are still alive today who saw the very beginning of surfing in it's modern form. Crazy.
Who knows how long we'll be around for, not a whole lot longer.
But in 1000 years, when historians look back on surfing, A.I's name and photos will still stand alone showcasing his incredible talents...still possibly the most talented surfer to ever ride a surfboard.
What adds to the timelessness, is we never saw A.I make the transition to the shorter boards. That's an incredible sidenote to add to the lineage of surfing. A.I was never part of that horrible shift to shorter boards. (as far as i remember?)
You can't help but wonder if he held the fort in regards to riding those longer boards and once he passed, there was no one setting the bar on proper full rail surfing, so surfing itself wandered down a different path, led by Slaters wizard sleeves..etc, which inevitably everyone else followed. Even bloody Parko followed...I much preferred him with more rail in the water,....another surfer that sits alongside A.I at the very pinnacle of most talented surfers.
First thing that stood out in this pic was that longer board. Bring back the longer rail lengths.
That was one of the fundamental features of what made his surfing so appealing to the eye..was the use of all that rail.
And i believe it enhanced style.
Nowadays style has become defunct, in exchange for the copycat technique that is easily achieved on a shorter, responsive, more buoyant board...a board where you don't have to put your body under high velocity and pressure into its most exposed and vulnerable positions to wring every single part of speed out of the whole length of the rail.
After reading that, gotta reflect..
We're lucky to be alive and part of a generation that has seen the birth of modern surfing.
Something that will probably be of way more significance when we're no longer around to appreciate that fact.
And then you've got Slater. Can you believe we were all alive when the G.O.A.T did his whole thing.....and he's still there now. Crazy!
Cheers FR. Great article and agree with above, more please!
so spot on.
very intuitive, great post.
It's the pig vs the mini-gun vs the pig vs the mini-gun vs the pig vs the mini-gun on and on and on...
The pig mals & shortboard revolution vs Brewer's Pipeliners vs the Aussies 'stubbies' vs Rolf Aurness dominating them at Bells on a 7fter in 1970 and unleashing a decade of long rail pleasing min-gun surfing (eg Fitz's lines at J-Bay) vs going short and the thruster blowing that away on stubby little boards vs it going long and thin in the 90s/2000s vs Kelly going short and everyone following on quads etc vs...
Just has to take someone blowing them all away with rail length in the right conditions and setting, and we all go into long rail carves again for a decade.
Some of us never left that...
well said
strange mix length has almost gone extinct... almost seems as tho the area of mid length needs more attention then all boards combine.. just my say.
Not often you see fully drawn-out rail turns these day. Even EE does three little hops on his bottom turns.
I reckon Ben Webb is leading a bit of a revival charge with his shaping and surfing.
Classic mid length boards not helped by being towed out instead of paddling out in contests these days.
I've had better luck with the shorter step up boards (DHD sweet spot) rather than the longer, thinner, more rockered step ups. But that might just be my lack of skill. On the other end of the spectrum I've had better luck going slightly longer on the small wave boards! The last stubby twin I had (Stacey Bullet twin) had me offloading that thing as quickly as possible and going permanently back to a thruster/quad for the small wave boards.
I'd love an article on the wizard sleeve!
Ethan Ewing on a long deep concave can do this kinda turn out there … easily, probably will in 2024.
Absolutely!
What's going on in that clip? At 1:37 he freefalls at least ten feet vertically and appears to wipe out. At 1:45 he appears just in front of the lip and continues surfing the wave. That's some sort of David Blaine shit.
yeah had to rewind that a couple times myself.........fukkin amazing... and how did he make that wave after 'that 'drop and massive section...........legend
Seriously insane. To even make the drop, but considering the huge section that followed, how the hell did he get back out in front of it?!
A rather epic photo you've dragged up Steve. One I've never seen before.
Thanks heaps.
Thankyou
Wavester. I’m heading to work
Pumped.
It has to be one of my favourite surf clips, glad you enjoyed it.
Great read Steve and thanks for the correct reference of "masking by sponsors". Billabong knew full well of Andy's decline and instead of helping they used it to try and make their dad-shorts product seem somehow more edgy. RIP AI, one of the all-time greats
That’s a nice article.
If truth be told; the last time professional surfing didn’t do an impression of paint drying was when Irons was schooling Slater in the the art of power (in and out of the water).
There was a time on surf trips we’d pop in the Blue Horizon VHS and debate how school girlish Slater was, not that he wasn’t but, how much. We all lauded Irons as pretty much the last true surf hero, his imperfections pinned to his chest like Scout badge achievements. Already an anachronism being eclipsed by a commercially savvy member of a dysfunctional Brady bunch.
Irons was the last of the surfing code hero’s. Not so much Hemingways code hero. A different code, one Kelly dismantled and buried and danced on.
Vale Andy, vale pro surfing.
Just imagine how good he would have been if his boardshorts didn't come down past his knees!
Almost comical looking back. I still rock em down near the knee...on land only but...
Great read and various clips posted.
What an unbelievable surfer!
Like my wife's always said.
A bit more length!
Kelly's multi-decade effect on boards...people forget he's like a jockey in stature. I'd argue JJF's Ghosts went a bit longer than the accepted at the time, as it should given his body type. Those results are equally historic/epochal
JJF was riding his 6’2 ghost from 3 foot to 10 foot+ though.
That was a little bit of marketing spin/embellishment lostdoggy. A lot of those iconic sessions were on 6'4" ghosts. He does ride short boards in solid surf where I would be chasing an 8'0" but yeah some of those Haleiwa, Margies, Cloudy sessions were 6"4" and 6"6" ghosts.
Hey funny
Inspirational on many levels.
Had a magic 7'0 deep six channel pin tail tri fin many moons ago. Just picked up a 6'11 deep six swallow tail quad from a storage cleanput sale awhile back.
Have yet to see how it goes, but I think it isn't going to have that turn on a dime quality that my old board had. Still more pumped than ever now to see how it goes.
Thanks to you for that one...
beautifully written, thank you FR for shining a light on this pinnacle of surfing 20 yrs ago. I remember AI’s non-surfing sabbaticals at Angourie in the bong house in his latter years. I feel so sad for the loved ones he left behind.
No wonder he was so good, he had gills. Check the photo.
I too loved that he took Slater on and showed up some of Slater’s psychological flaws. Had him on toast for a few years there, by directly confronting him. Warrior.
I too lament the loss of the 6’6” plus boards, razor sharp and powerful. A full torque turn on one of those things is a thing of beauty.
more i look at the EXACT turn the more iam speachless.. thanks for the point out
True power rail surfing. Totally underrated and largely ignored these days, excepting Ethan Ewing and Jack Robbo. Their final at J Bay was epic, but still not at the AI level. The Mexico stuff of AI is the best free surfing I have ever seen - and I am 62 years of age and have seen a bit. A full rail turn at speed is one of the great joys of my life.
Thanks for the article as I believe this spirit is still alive.
After 21 days on the Swellnet front page the shot still draws my gaze and inspires. One of the best carves ever me thinks.
+1 frog
Completely agree @frog and @simba.
That pic is timeless.
Here's some classic Pipe Masters footage featuring A.I and co before webcasts were a thing, before fans got selfies with phones, but with actual cameras, and when boards were the right length!(except maybe for 1st reef Pipe).
Absolutely pumping Pipe. Big, thick and perfect(ish).
SR, Rob Machado made that look way too easy.
So good hey LD.