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Kelly Slater © ASP

We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us

Sep 17 2006 / Los Angeles, CA
HEAD TO HEAD: The Slater/Irons Rivalry is One of the Greatest in Surfing History
 

The Boost Mobile Pro Presented by Hurley shuffled the deck in the ongoing Celebrity Death Match between Andy Irons and Kelly Slater. Going into the event, Slater was the ratings leader, with Irons in third and Taj Burrow the wild card between them. Those in the know around San Clemente were hoping for a classic joust between AI and Slates at Lowers. But that plan was torn and scattered by the Australian with the funny name – Bede Durbidge – who took down Irons in Round Four on the final day, and collected the scalp of Burrow in the semis. Durbidge beat Slater to become King for a Day, but even at second Slater increased his ratings lead by a few hundred points over Irons, and that couple hundred points could come in very handy with four remaining events in France, Spain, Brazil and Pipeline.

 

There have been great rivalries in surfing before: Dora vs. Fain at Malibu in the early 60s. Young vs. Nuuhiwa at the 1966 World Contest. Shaun Tomson, Mark Richards and Rabbit Bartholomew busted down the door in Hawaii in the late 70s and risked injury by land and sea – reef and beef – to change big-wave performance surfing forever. 

In the 80s, Australian Mark Occhiluppo proclaimed all American surfers “Seppo wankers” and that sparked epic man on man heats at Huntington Beach for the Op Pro.

 

And now the rivalry is Kelly Slater against Andy Irons. Youth having a go at age. At  27 years old, six feet tall and 170 pounds, Irons is inches taller and pounds heavier than the average pro surfer – who are closer to gymnasts these days. But he grew up surfing the easy waves of Pinecones on Kauai, along with some of the gnarliest reefbreaks in Hawaii, and that has made him a well rounded surfer equally comfortable at Huntington Beach and Teahupoo.

Slater is six years older, which, like dog years, is many many many years older in the youth-obsessed world of professional surfing – where most surfers over 30 are already out to pasture, starting clothing companies or drinking.

Kelly Slater headshot  Andy Irons

 Kelly vs. Andy

 

  Kelly Slater Photo Gallery>    Andy Irons Photo Gallery>

 

By the time he was 27 Kelly Slater had six World Professional Surfing Titles. He won his first in 1992 at 20 years old – the youngest ever – and won again in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998. With six World Titles on his mantelpiece, Slater retired in 1998, the same year Andy jumped on tour, a wound up wildman from Kauai who won the Huntington Beach event and probably could have done more if he hadn’t partied so hard.

Irons struggled for the next two years, winning no events in 1999 and only one event in 2000. Irons was partying too hard and needed something to clear his head. Slater was in retirement and needed something to light his fire.
 
Then they found each other.

Card- Slater/ Irons
Slater was retired from full time competition at this time but he jumped into events that interested him. Pipe Masters has always interested Slater, and he first met Irons at the 2000 event. Slater lost, and for all his wins and his success he is never one to take defeat well: '”Yeah, I guess everybody thinks it's Andy's time now,” Slater was quoted by Dan Duane in the New York Times.  “like it’s Y2K, the world’s changing.” A clever thing to say, because Slater is closer to Plato then Spicoli, but Slater was not content to let the world change without him.
   

Irons won that Pipe Masters battle, but like the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, all he had done was to wake the Sleeping Giant.

 

One of the hardest things about success is figuring out what to do with yourself after. Slater’s Second Act began in 2003, when he came back on tour, enticed by occasional volcanic puffs of arrogance from Andy Irons – who, like Richie Collins on Tom Curren many years before had declared Slater old book. He was 31 now, the Old School, in a sense, and Slater was probably as curious as the rest of the world to see if he still had it, and what he could do with it against guys 10 years younger.
 
Slater came back in 2003 and won four events – at Mundaka, Florianopolis, Teahupoo and Jeffrey’s Bay – but Andy won five WCT events in a year that ended with an epic battle between Slater and Irons on an epic battlefield: The Pipe Masters.
 
In a scene right out of a corny waxploitation movie, Slater and Irons met in swift collision over the reef at Pipe. Tensions were thick as Irons was backed up by his Wolfpack of young Pipe dominators who watched Slater’s every move like a pack of…. There had been a shouting match in the water the day before, with Andy doing most of the shouting while Slater tried to calm him down. They met in the final of an event that had been to Slater what the Super Bowl had been to Joe Montana. Slater owned Pipe for many years and was considered almost unbeatable man on man, especially when he was fired up. Irons fired Slater up but to the surprise of almost everyone – including Slater – Irons beat Slater man on man. As Dan Duane summed it up in the New York Times: “When the judges gave him the contest -- and the world title -- Irons became the first man ever to face Slater one on one and just plain beat him. After the heat, Slater stayed in the water alone for half an hour as the crowd carried Irons on their shoulders. He then ran up the beach to the home of his rock-star friend Jack Johnson and wept under the outdoor shower.  An hour later, the two were together again, waiting in a trailer before talking to the journalists outside. Irons slapped Slater on the back. '’It's on,'’ he was quoted as saying. ‘See you next year.’” 
 

And it has been on ever since.  Slater didn’t win any events in 2004 and Andy won two, with Slater finishing third in the ratings and Irons winning his second World Title. And then in 2005, Slater caught fire. He won at Teahupoo, Fiji, Jeffreys Bay and Lower Trestles, and claimed his seventh World Title, becoming both the oldest and youngest surfer to achieve that.


Slater

 Kelly Slater

 

  No matter what the conditions Kelly Slater always manages to find the tube. The defending Billabong Pro champ will face local wildcard Sean Holmes in his upcoming round 3 heat.

Slater and Irons are both addicted to Texas Hold Em and that makes sense. Pro surfers travel as much as any other pro athlete and Hold Em is a way to kill time and pass time in airports, hotels and competitor’s tents around the world. But Texas Hold Em also makes sense to pro surfers because dealing with the deck is just like dealing with the ocean: You never know what you’re going to get, and no matter how good your skills or your nerve, the luck of the draw is the equalizer playing No Limit or surfing Pipeline.

 

Hold Em players will the deck to deliver that 8 of clubs and fill the flush, in the same way surfers beg the ocean to give them one more 8.0 wave as the clock is ticking.

 

Slater and Irons both love the drama, they love the game. They love the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat and most likely would not know what to do with themselves with no more contests in front of them – maybe become professional poker players.
 
Andy and Kelly are in it to win it, not really for money anymore. They are both millionaires, and wealthier than their wildest teenage dreams. Neither surfer really has anything to prove. Slater has seven world titles and Irons has three. Maybe Irons wants to top Slater’s record and maybe Slater wants to keep winning titles and increase a record that Andy or anyone will ever top.

The truth is, Irons and Slater just love the game. They love the sting of battle. They love to see what the deck is going to deal, and how they are going to play the cards they were dealt. In Texas Hold Em terms, Slater and Irons have been going head to head for years and the rest of the pack are a bunch of jokers.

- Ben Marcus


- Read more on Kelly Slater and Andy Irons: The Kelly and Andy Show

- Find out what happened at The Surfer Poll and Surf Video Awards

- Press Release: Slater Eager to Make his Mark on Quicksilver  Pro France