Irons Is On
Friday - June 30, 2006
| Share
Del.icio.us
Andy feels the stoke after his first
2006 win
Howzit, surfers?
Well, it looks like things are calming down surf-wise compared to the last couple months. These months were way above average. There were more than eight swells from late April through the middle of June. Now we seem to be heading into a period of smaller, more “average” southern swells. The good news is there’s enough to get us out there and keep us out there. You know, that 2- to 3-foot summer-fun kind of wave that anyone can handle ... with a few 4-foot swells to make it more interesting. We ought to get at least a 3-foot bump this Friday and Saturday…next up is around the Fourth of July! Then we spot something out even as far as the end of next week! Stoked! Stay waxed and ready ...
You know who’s been waxed and ready to get his fourth World Title? How about Kauai’s very own Andy Irons? ... He’s baaaaack! This amazing surfer is now just a measly 100 points behind current leader and super freak Kelly Slater. “AI” won his first event of the season Friday (June 23) at the Ripcurl Search: Somewhere in Mexico. This was the fifth contest of the year and there are six more to come. Of course, it’s way too early to tell, but if you’d have seen his surfing in Mexico, you’d feel what I’m feeling - when Andy’s “on,” he’s unbeatable, period ...
Now they’re off to Africa. He is traveling the planet as fast as his board can take him. As of this writing, Andy’s got a momentum to repeat yet another historic race to the finish ahead of the greatest surfer of all time. Kelly Slater’s won seven titles compared to AI’s three ...that’s a decade of world championships between these two icons. Well, guess what? It looks like together they could nab 11. These guys went at it BIG TIME in 2002 for the most exciting title race ever. We’ll know the outcome by the end of the Triple Crown’s Pipeline Masters by Dec. 20. Stay tuned ...So the next stop is Africa in July on the ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) World Tour. This is after scoring insanely good 6- to 10-foot waves in Mexico. Andy won this hands down, or should I say feet? They had some of the best waves ever held in a contest. It was perfect.
Andy Irons rippin’ at the Rip Curl Search: Somewhere in
Mexico
In the final heat Irons busted out the most mind-boggling aerial or “super-man” - this is when you go straight up and straight down preferably without a “rail grab.” He did this move ... but 7 feet in the air! This is arguably the highest aerial ever done in an ASP main event. A very respectable aerial is getting the board 3 feet high. I could not believe my eyes (I was watching online) ... AI flew up and up fully extended his 6-foot body on the way down. This meant his head peaked about 12 feet above this wave! He’s obviously not afraid of heights. When he landed his surfboard squirted just a little ... then he quickly regained composure. From there he picked up enough speed to finish off with a hard bottom turn flying him down the line into two “floaters” and two “off the lips” ... it was a display of ridiculous talent and boundless faith. We can be proud of our Kauai son. He’s the best surfer to ever come out of the Garden Island and maybe all Hawaii Nei! He just needs a few more Triple Crowns like Sunny Garcia ...
Hey, did you hear about Carissa Moore winning the women’s open division in the Oakley National Scholastic Surfing Championships (NSSA) at lower Trestles in California? Yeah! It all went down or should I say “up” on Sunday, June 25. Way to go, Carissa! She beat out No. 2 Alana Blanchard from Hawaii. Plus another batch of Hawaii rippers did awesome: Bethany Hamilton won the explorer division along with Dusty Payne (men’s) and Granger Larsen (boys). Then, Clay Marzo won the men’s open ... John John Florence won the boys open division. It was Kai Barger for the Juniors and Kolohe Andino for the mini-groms! Wow! I think Hawaii plans on ruling the next generation of surf stars ... This was what I’d call a sweeeeet sweep! I’ll post the entire results on surfnewsnetwork.com just for you.
And, that’s it for me! I gotta get wet ... see you next week! I’m GQ, droppin’ in 4 U!
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS Comments (0) |
Most Recent Comment(s):
