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Irons triumphs at Rip Curl Pro Search

By Duane Shimogawa Jr. – The Garden Island

Andy Irons has waited too long to capture another World Championship Tour top spot, but the three-time world champ quenched his title thirst yesterday with a win over Taylor Knox in the Rip Curl Pro Search in Mexico.

“I feel great!” Irons said in an e-mail. “Just being in the final is amazing. I make a point of trying to make a few finals a year and to actually get a win is even better. Taylor is a good friend of mine, it’s a great wave and we’ve had such a good time here this week so this is a perfect ending. I couldn’t have written it any better.”

Irons’ last WCT win came on the islands about a year ago at the Rip Curl Pro at Banzai Pipeline on O‘ahu.

Andy also knocked off younger brother Bruce in yesterday’s quarterfinals.

In a fantastic finish to a simply amazing event, the Hanalei surfer won the Rip Curl Pro Search WCT held “somewhere in Mexico” in incredible three to six foot waves.

Held at the long and hollow wave known only as La Jolla, Irons was the top surfer of the day and was a well-deserved winner.

With the wind coming up slightly for the final of the fifth event on the Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour, the focus shifted to big turns rather than big barrels and Irons stepped up to the task.

After a slow start for waves, the two competitors were sitting for a while before a set pushed through.

Knox struck the first blow with a series of searing turns and locked in an 8.0.

Then Irons struck back with a massive air, which saw him launch approximately three feet off the top of the wave.

From there on it was all Irons as he went to town on another solid wave to score a 7.93 and seal the win.

Right from round one Irons was showing the form that has earned him three world championship titles and is now back in serious contention for yet another Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour title this year.

Irons indicated he is eager to go on with the job from here.

“That’s it, game on!” Irons said. “The momentum has begun and I know I need to capitalize on this win and carry it on into Jeffreys Bay at the next event and hopefully throughout the rest of the year.”

Irons is now back in the position he finished in last year, second behind Kelly Slater.

Runner-up Knox is in the best form of his 13-year top tour career, and with the second place finish he’s now tied for fourth place in the ratings.

He has adopted a much more relaxed approach to competitive surfing in 2006 and his improvement has been substantial.

He was full of praise for his finals counterpart but felt he may have been able to perform a little better if his equipment was up to the task and he hadn’t given Irons a wave in the heat that he should have rode.

“Andy surfed really well and he actually surfed really well all week,” Knox said in a press release. “I felt like I could have won as well, but I gave him a good wave. I rode a broken board in every heat and since they are broken they are a little a heavier than I would have liked, so I was just lucky to get to this point.”

Knox was very pleased with how the year is panning out.

“This is the best start I’ve ever had because I really haven’t been thinking too much about it,” Knox said. “I’ve been having a lot fun on the road and at home and really not getting ahead of myself,” Knox said.

Australia’s Taj Burrow finished tied for third after narrowly going down to Knox in an extremely close semifinal. Burrow is now tied with Knox for fourth in the ratings.

With the lead swapping throughout the heat, Burrow threw everything he could into his waves but failed to link together enough turns on sufficient waves to close the door on Knox. He also fell on what was probably the best wave of the heat.

“It was good for turns out there,” Burrow said. “But on my best wave I hit a big bump and it turned me into this walled-out floater, and I sacked it. That was a really good wave and I was pretty upset that I blew it.”

Desperate for a win to keep his title hopes alive, Burrow was understandably upset not to make it through to the final.

“It was just one of those things. I’m pretty devastated, but a semifinal placing isn’t too bad,” he said. “I was pretty excited to go a little further obviously, but I’ll take it. It’s definitely a result to keep, but if you’re gunning for the world title, you have to get a lot of finals berths. That’s what I was aiming for.”

Also finishing in third was an ecstatic Tim Reyes, one of the standouts throughout the week, notching the highest total score of the event — a 19.60 in round three.

The diminutive youngster equalled his career best result, a third-place finish in Jeffreys Bay last year.

“To get third is really good at this level,” Reyes said. “I felt like I was surfing pretty good and right now, it’s kind of like a dream that I’m placing in the top 10 after this event. I thought I’d be there, but never thought I’d be there. Hopefully I could be top five or even top three by the end of the year.

Despite getting knocked out in the quarterfinals, Slater maintains his No. 1 ranking.

His battle with good friend Knox in that heat saw Slater make many uncharacteristic mistakes; he fell on more than a few occasions after maneuvers that he normally handles with ease.

“I made a wave selection error that gave Taylor priority and that was the heat pretty much,” Slater said. “But I’m stoked for Taylor. He’s really on a roll and it’s great to see him get such a good result.”

Regarding the nature of Rip Curl’s floating license which allows them to shift the event from year to year to new locations, he was full of praise.

“I have always thought that the tour needed something like this,” Slater said. “This event has been great. This is one of the best waves in the world and the whole thing was great for surfing and great for the tour.”

The Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour will now shift its focus to the next event, the Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay, South Africa on July 12 to 22.

ASP World Rankings

1) Kelly Slater, 4233 points

2) Andy Irons, 4140 points

3) Bobby Martinez, 40008 points

t-4) Taj Burrow, 3650 points

t-4) Taylor Knox, 3650 points

6) Damien Hobgood, 3542 points

7) Joel Parkinson, 3052 points

8) CJ Hobgood, 2896 points

9) Bruce Irons, 2884 points

10) Tim Reyes, 2843

• Duane Shimogawa Jr., sports editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or kauaisports@kauaipubco.com.