IT’s at the beaches. It’s peppered along the roads and ends of driveways. Following the highway north to Hanalei, through the lush greens and thick groves, it’s carved into trees and painted on surfboards. We love you Andy. AI Forever.
IT’s at the beaches. It’s peppered along the roads and ends of driveways. Following the highway north to Hanalei, through the lush greens and thick groves, it’s carved into trees and painted on surfboards.
We love you Andy.
AI Forever.
Mahalo for everything.
Kaua‘i loves you.
It’s been 376 days and Andy Irons still lives on in the hearts of Kaua‘i.
In the year since the world was devastated by the passing of Andy, the circumstances surrounding his death have been written and talked ad naseum.
But this is not a story about death.
This is a story about life. And Andy Irons got and gave a lot in his 32 years on this planet.
During his illustrious career, Irons put Kaua‘i surfing on the map. Growing up surfing the breaks of the North Shore, Andy developed a style that turned convention on its head. He didn’t play it safe. He hit each wave with power.
“He changed the way people surf big waves,” Maui surfer Billy Kemper said. “He didn’t baby them. He attacked them like they were 2-foot waves.”
That style made him a celebrity in the surf world and paved his way to glory.
From 2002 through 2004, there wasn’t a better surfer on the planet. Andy, a fierce competitor, dedicated himself to the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour and won three straight world titles, edging out all-time great Kelly Slater in the process.
When Andy dropped in on a wave, anything could happen.
“He was so unpredictable,” lifelong friend Kala Alexander said. “If you saw him take off you didn’t want to look away or blink. He didn’t know what he was going to do, so how could we know? I don’t think any other surfer has made me feel like that.”
If anybody could have predicted the success of Andy, it would have been Alexander.
At 9 years old, Alexander rode in the car with Andy’s mom, Danielle, on the way to the hospital the day Andy was born. He watched as Andy and his younger brother Bruce took to Hanalei Bay as kids. Alexander remembers that the Irons brothers, even at young ages, showed incredible prowess in the ocean.
“When Andy was 3 or 4 he started boogey boarding and I knew (he and Bruce) would be something special,” Alexander said. “They knew exactly where to be. There’s a certain spot on a wave that has the most power. It’s where you want to be.”
That ability to not only spot, but to ride the best wave is something that even some lifelong surfers have trouble doing.
If it was sheer talent and a knack for the water that had Andy destined to become a professional surfer, it was his competitive drive that pushed him to the top.
Even when surfing with friends, Andy went all-out.
“He just wanted to beat you,” Alexander said. “It didn’t matter where it was. If it was 1-foot at Pine Trees he would go out there and match you move for move and then go back out there and outdo you.”
And when he was at his best, even in the years when the rankings didn’t show it, Andy remained one of the world’s greatest.
“The guy beat Slater three years in a row at his best game. Kelly is a friend of mine, but the best Andy Irons was better than the best Kelly Slater,” Alexander said. “Every single kid who surfs in the world takes notes from Andy Irons.”
The style Andy brought to competition has reverberated around the surfing world — especially on Hawai‘i. Kemper, who won the 2010 HIC Pro at Sunset Beach three days after Andy’s death, said he’s patterned much of his style after his idol.
Kemper grew up close with the Irons family, his late-brother Eric Diaz was friends with Andy and Bruce.
“I’ve pretty much watched Andy surf every day of my life — either in person or on the Internet,” Kemper said. “He’s one of the most inspirational surfers in my life and career and I miss him more than anything.”
Andy was on Kemper’s mind the morning of the HIC Pro final. It had been just a couple of days since Andy’s passing and Kemper was about to surf in the biggest final of his career.
Kemper took to the water that day raw with emotion and posted the biggest win of his career. Afterward he dedicated the win to Andy and Diaz, who passed away in 1998, by pointing up to the sky at the podium.
“To win on a day like that was special,” Kemper said. “I was chicken skinned walking home. I felt that someone was looking down on me. I felt like it was my day.”
Andy was especially inspirational to those on Kaua‘i. Since his success put the spotlight on Kaua‘i, the island has churned out talented surfers like an assembly line.
Bethany Hamilton is one of those young talented surfers. Growing up in Hanalei, Hamilton said she often saw Andy around town.
“It’s pretty small. Everyone ends up in this parking lot to surf,” Hamilton said, sitting in her truck in the Pine Trees parking lot earlier this month.To her left, a square of plywood with “AI I <3 U” painted in red lettering over a yellow backdrop is nailed to a tree centering the parking lot.
“There are people that you see everyday that won’t really talk. Andy would go out of his way to say hi. He was a caring, friendly guy.”
Andy’s character shined to Hamilton after a shark attack in 2003 claimed her left arm. Hamilton, a prominent junior surfer at the time of the injury, said Irons visited her at the hospital and gave her a signed surfboard.
“He was super encouraging,” Hamilton said. “I’m sure he was super-stoked that I continued surfing after.”
Several days before the one-year anniversary of Andy’s death, Hamilton went to his parents’ house to give them the board.
“It was something of Andy’s and I wanted them to have it. I thought it would be cool,” Hamilton said. Andy’s parents saw Hamilton later that day and they wanted her to take the board back.
“I’m sure they miss him. It’s near the anniversary. It’s going to be a rough couple of weeks,” she said.
Thoughts of Andy, while never suppressed, resurfaced around the days of the one-year anniversary. His death was hard on everyone who knew him, but none more than his wife Lyndie. She was seven months pregnant when Andy died, and now Andrew Axel Irons, born on Dec. 9, is a flesh-and- blood reminder of him.
Lyndie couldn’t be reached to comment for this story, but Alexander said he spent time with the family last week.
He said the surfing community has rallied around Lyndie and anything she needs, it’s there. As for Andrew, Alexander said he’s happy and healthy.
“The boy is special. He reminds me so much of (Andy),” Alexander said.
He would know. Thirty-three years ago, Alexander held Andy as a baby. Now, he holds his son.
“It’s like déjà vu,” he said. “It’s the weirdest feeling.”
Andrew is beginning to show some of the same tell-tale signs Andy did as a boy. He’s got the same looks. He’s got tremendous balance for an 11-month old. And, chances are, he will be beckoned by the ocean.
“There’s no doubt in my mind he’ll be a surfer,” Alexander said. “I would bet money he catches a wave with either me or one of his uncles in the next four months. It’s in his genes.”
Whether it’s the signs along the road or video clips played in a bar of him riding a monster in Tahiti or ripping a barrel at Pipeline, Andy Irons hasn’t left Kaua‘i.
He’s there whenever a kid attacks a wave at Pine Trees. He’s there in the next generation of great Kauaian surfers. He’s there in his son.
Andy Irons is still here on Kaua‘i, and while it might not be physically, those who knew him say the man who surfed in the slop, took down Slater, and brought Kaua‘i surfing to the world stage will never be forgotten.
