![ZERO6 arte/desordem [art/mess]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCCGh2aR4viN2YAm0bsdEcBX6xFeyydppbNFcUh59WYKD_IhR9arh9gtZObFkA6KaXowqDPTUEti_KAEEWkGxgOahP9V9Oh4g7s1tYohzcvy_-XGDqE23pfqvBFy48XIOr1jqB-OptmrZO/s1600/cabe%25C3%25A7alho+white+trash.jpg)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
"Macramento" trailer - Fixed gear riding in Sacramento with John Cardiel and friends.
MACRAMENTO from MACAVISION on Vimeo.
Bike collective Macaframa have just released a teaser to their new movie Macramento.
The film, directed by Colby Elrick, follows the fixed gear scene in Sacramento, California as they take their urbanly-inclined bikes out on to dirt tracks.
It features none other than skate legend John Cardiel who can be seen taking the same balls out approach to fixed gear riding as he did with skateboarding.
Soul and Progression by Ästhetiker
Austrian snow and skate crew, Äesthetiker covertly dropped a video called Soul and Progression yesterday, the first episode in an eight part series.
For a crew whose mantra focuses on the style and beauty of shredding, this video sums them up entirely. With a mellow little jazzy tune from BRX and the speed of all the tricks being wound down a notch, this reel is nice. It's the epic amounts of powder that make it.
The resulting effect is kind of the same as when you accidentally zone out and get mesmerised by the visualiser on iTunes, but less trippy and more awesome
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Surfers react to AI article by Brad Melekian
by Jake HowardOn Monday, Outside Magazine posted a story online, written by Brad Melekian, that essentially spells out how "Andy Irons had battled with alcohol- and drug-abuse issues throughout his adult life, and on at least one occasion nearly died as a result."
Up until the publishing of the Melekian story, Irons' substance issues had been the stuff of hushed backyard conversation and an over-eager blogoshpere, but never had they been told with such detail and in-depth reporting. And while results of Irons toxicology reports remain pending, Melekian leaves little doubt that dengue fever wasn't the sole cause of the three-time world champion's death.
Obviously the telling of this story has the potential for heavy repercussions ("I hope he never wanted to go back to Hawaii," is one remark I've heard more than once), but in an email conversation with Melekian on Tuesday he noted that the feedback thus far has been surprisingly positive, even in Hawaii.
Multiple sources in Hawaii, all who prefer to remain nameless and "out of the fray," confirmed this. "It's a story that needed to be told," said one island-based pro. "It may be a bit premature without the toxicology results, but people need to understand that Andy was a real person that struggled with the same things as a lot of other people. We're all human, after all."
In his story Melekian points to the possibility that Billabong, Irons' main sponsor, and various surf media outlets may have been complicit in covering up his struggles. Whether a full-blown cover-up or just a negligent sweeping under the rug, talking conspiracy is always dicey territory. When asked for their reactions to the story, both Billabong and Surfer magazine declined the opportunity to comment.
"In doing dozens of interviews, probably close to 50, every conversation made mention of problems that Andy had struggled with for years," said Melekian, "and most people -- even those who declined to be interviewed, or would only be interviewed anonymously -- said they thought it was time that the issues came to light, to provoke a conversation about why these problems were never addressed publicly, and encouraged an honest telling of Andy's life that showed that he was a complex person who struggled, as we all do."
Would an Irons' confession years ago have saved him? Is a story like this too soon? Or is it anybody's business at all? Doesn't much matter now. The surf world lost a champion and a family lost a loved one, and at the end of it all, Melekian did a commendable job in keeping that in perspective.
Tumblr - Não Liberto
“É, as pessoas têm falado muito sobre Satã ultimamente. Creio é que há tantas visões sobre o Satanismo quanto diferentes tipos de cristianismo.Depois de ler inumeros artigos e a famigerada bíblia satanica,eu na minha opinião acho o título desse livro está errado, porque quando as pessoas olham a palavra bíblia elas automaticamente pensam em religião e esse não é o caso – é mais uma filosofia, na verdade. Você não idolatra nada quando é um Satanista. Bem, há outros tipos de Satanistas que realmente veneram algum tipo de criatura com chifres, que é um deus Cristão se você analisar bem, porque Satã é um Deus dentro do Cristianismo e apenas um que eles (os Cristãos) não querem que você venere. Bem, eu não gostaria de venerar esse cara também. Sabe, eu também não vejo nada de positivo no Satã Cristão literalmente falando. Se alguém me pergunta se sou um Satanista, eu pergunto primeiro ‘O que isso significa satanismo para você?’. Então se essa pessoa conseguir explicar para mim de maneira inteligente o que é um Satanista, então eu posso dizer sim ou não, dependendo do caso. Mas se disser ‘Oh, você sacrifica animais e reza pro diabo’, bem, isso não tem nada a ver. Esse não é o meu estilo de vida. Mas o Satanismo não é uma religião e eu mesmo não sigo nenhuma religião. Eu não acredito em um deus e seria a última pessoa a dizer que existe um porque não há prova real de que exista um deus e nenhuma pessoa até agora conseguiu provar ao mundo que existe um deus. Talvez algumas pessoas acreditem que tenham provas para elas mesmas de que existe um, mas nunca houve uma pessoa que pudesse provar isso para o resto do mundo. E o que é triste é que algumas pessoas não conseguem aceitar que nem todos acreditam nas mesmas coisas, além de achar que os outros pertencem a algum tipo de espécie inferior porque não possuem as mesmas crenças. Isso não faz nenhum sentido para mim. E se as pessoas tivessem esse tipo de respeito pelas outras haveria menos guerras, porque muitas guerras acontecem devido à diferenças religiosas"
Não Liberto
Friday, November 26, 2010
Dane Reynolds - Collecting Scores and Umbrella Drinks - by Dustin Miller
Collecting Scores And Umbrella Drinks from STAB on Vimeo.
Dane Reynolds did a lot more in Puerto Rico than just blast some of the biggest turns and airs of the event. What you ask? Well, check out this 9-minute clip, entitled Collecting Scores And Umbrella Drinks, to see his heats and his adventures, all put together by the talented Dustin Miller.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Andy Irons Last Drop - by Brad Melekian
There were always rumors of drug abuse and binge drinking, but until Andy Irons died mysteriously in a Dallas hotel earlier this month, nobody close to the surfing legend was willing to talk. In an exclusive, friends and sponsors break surfing's code of silence to recount the tragic descent and final days of the sport's most troubled star.WHEN THREE-TIME world surfing champion Andy Irons was found dead on Tuesday, November 2, in a Dallas hotel room, the news reverberated far beyond the sport's core of devoted fans and followers. The second was the date of crucial midterm elections throughout the United States, but the most frequent Google search that day was for a person who had nothing to do with politics: Andy Irons. His passing was covered by hundreds of media outlets all over the planet, a clear measure of the impact Irons had during his amazing athletic career.
It wasn't as clear what had killed him. Two days before his death, Irons, 32, had withdrawn from pro surfing's World Tour contest near Isabela, Puerto Rico, electing to fly home to Kauai, Hawaii, to be with his wife, Lyndie, who was eight months pregnant with their first child—a boy. During a layover at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport on the morning of November 1, Irons skipped his connecting flight to Honolulu and instead checked in to DFW's Grand Hyatt hotel, crashing in his room. He didn't respond to wake-up calls the next morning, and Hyatt employees, worried that something was wrong, entered the room and discovered his lifeless body in bed.
Irons's family, together with his primary sponsor, Billabong, quickly released a statement saying that the surfer had "reportedly been battling with dengue fever," a mosquito-borne disease they said he'd picked up at the Association of Surfing Professionals' October stop in Peniche, Portugal. From the outset, though, the dengue-fever explanation seemed unlikely as the sole culprit. Several surfers came down with the flu after Portugal, but no medical evidence was presented that Irons had dengue, which is fatal to only 1 percent of the people it afflicts. "I've had dengue fever," says one professional surfer who knew Irons. "You don't die from it unless you're in a Third World country."
What killed Irons is still unknown, and in the aftermath of his death, there was nothing to go on other than hints that he'd been taking prescription medications in his final hours. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on November 3 but didn't state a cause of death, pending a toxicology report that isn't expected until early December. When police searched Irons's hotel room, they found two prescription bottles labeled as the generic forms of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the sleep aid Ambien. And a report in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser quoted a medical examiner as saying that the prescription drug methadone—used to treat addiction to heroin and opiate-based pharmaceuticals like OxyContin, and given more rarely for pain—had also been found inside the Ambien bottle. A spokesperson for the examiner's office denied this comment, but the Star-Advertiser stood by its report.
NONE OF THESE FACTS add up to anything definite, and the cause of Irons's death won't be known until medical officials issue their findings. But this much is now clear: Irons had battled with alcohol- and drug-abuse issues throughout his adult life, and on at least one occasion nearly died as a result, during a 1999 binge-drinking episode in Indonesia. As Outside has learned through interviews with dozens of friends, colleagues, and surf-industry professionals who were close to Irons, his problems were common knowledge in the insular world of pro surfing, but they were kept under wraps by an unspoken but understood code of public silence. After Irons's death, several of these people decided it was time for the surf world to face facts. Still, fearing reprisal, a few sources requested anonymity.
Many people confirmed Irons's drug and alcohol abuse, though when it came to narcotics, nobody could say precisely what he took or how often. Most sources described a mix of prescription and recreational drugs, noting that, while they never saw him consume them, their effects were obvious. But if Irons practiced discretion, he ignored moderation. On July 24, 1999, he nearly drank himself to death at the Bumi Minang hotel, in Padang, Indonesia.
"He basically died on us, more than once," said Art Brewer, the 59-year-old elder statesman of surf photography, who traveled with Irons and a half-dozen pros on the 1999 trip to the Mentawais, an Indonesian island chain. Twelve days after Irons's death, Brewer agreed to meet at his studio in Dana Point, California, to tell his story publicly for the first time. From the outset of this interview, he was careful to point out that he didn't see Irons ingest anything other than alcohol. But whatever was in his system, Irons had consumed too much of it, lapsing into a state of unconsciousness during which he appeared to stop breathing or have a pulse for a three-minute period.
"It was Andy's 21st birthday," said Brewer, who has known Irons's family for 40 years. Irons and the surfing crew had returned to port in Padang from the Mentawais, and Andy "started out drinking. I saw half a quart of Jack Daniel's that had been drunk." Brewer drifted off to his room, but at 10 P.M. he was roused by a surfer who said he had to come quickly: Irons was in trouble. "I went to the room," said Brewer, "and Andy was blue."
Brewer was told that Irons had consumed a second fifth of Jack Daniel's, passed out, and stopped breathing. "So they stripped him down and threw him into a cold shower. They threw ice on him. He wasn't responding, and he was getting bluer and bluer."
One of the surfers administered CPR, which got Irons breathing again, and the group took him to a small local hospital, where he was given oxygen. "Then he went flatline," said Brewer. "He just dropped on us again. I think this happened three to five times total." The first hospital wasn't equipped to provide critical care, so the group took him to another, which was also improperly equipped, before landing at a facility that could treat him.
"They got him into ICU," said Brewer. "He'd gone flatline again. They paddled him. He came back up and, somewhere in between that and when we were outside the ICU, he went into a coma. And then one of his lungs collapsed. It was shocking."
For six hours, Brewer and some of the surfers waited outside the ICU. "Finally, at three or four in the morning," he said, "Andy comes around, they get his lung reinflated, and he comes out of a coma." The next day, Brewer was able to convince doctors to release Irons so the group could make their scheduled flight to Singapore—where he received additional treatment—and then home.
Unfortunately, the experience didn't seem to change Irons's behavior. A week later, Brewer said, at a party in the L.A. area held by Surfer magazine to celebrate its annual readers' poll, Irons went over the top with his drinking again. "What really pissed me off is that he was so fucked up at the Surfer Poll Awards," he said. "I couldn't believe he hadn't mellowed out. It made me wonder how he could go that hard and have a near-death experience—or a death experience—and then come back and push the envelope again."
The Indonesia crew never told their story, but in the wake of Irons's death, Brewer and others felt the time had come. "I'm honorable as far as keeping my mouth shut about things that are basically none of my business," said Brewer, who got a blessing from Andy's brother, Bruce, another top professional surfer, to discuss the episode. "But this one came so close to me. I could have lost one of my friends' children. Then who's at fault?"
ANDY IRONS GREW UP in Hanalei, Kauai, the north-shore town populated by locals and the people who run Kauai's tourism industry. His father, Phil, a carpenter and surfer and one of nine children, had moved to Hawaii from California in 1970. Andy and Bruce, who is 16 months younger than Andy, spent most of their childhood competing with friends and cousins for the island's perfect waves.
Both brothers eventually surfed professionally, but it was Andy who broke out in 1996, winning the HIC Pipeline Pro, on nearby Oahu, at age 17. A few months later, still relatively unknown, Irons showed that it wasn’t a fluke by winning another pro event—this time at Tahiti's deadly Teahupoo.
Irons was obviously a major talent, and over the years he earned a loyal following for his go-big style. He was the most fearless surfer at some of the world's heaviest breaks, often riding deep inside the tube at dangerous spots like Pipeline and Teahupoo. But he was still skilled enough at riding small waves to win at every stop on the World Tour. No other surfer offered such a complete package—except Kelly Slater, holder of a record ten surfing world championships.
But by the time Irons joined the elite ranks of the ASP World Tour, in 1998, he had also developed a reputation for wild behavior off the water. The tour, a judged ten-event global road trip for the sport’s best competitors, includes plenty of downtime, and Irons made the most of it. He also finished 34th and barely requalified after the 1999 season.
"Rumor was that he was riding the party train too hard," says Matt Warshaw, author of The History of Surfing, an exhaustive chronicle about the sport. Where college freshmen had frat parties, Andy had money to burn and groupies at every stop. As World Tour competitor Taj Burrow put it in a recent promotional video for Billabong: "Everywhere we go, it's their biggest night of the year. You can't help but get involved."
Off the tour, Irons ran with the Wolf Pack, a fearsome group of Kauai surfers who enforced localism at their home breaks—often with their fists. "Early on, Andy didn't have handlers," says Chris Mauro, a former editor of Surfer. "He had his crew."
By the 2001 World Tour, Irons had signed a sponsorship deal with Australian clothing company Billabong for a reported $650,000 per year. Far from mellowing, he achieved antihero status, and many fans loved him for it. "Andy was loud and in your face," says former World Tour surfer Shea Lopez, a close friend. "He was the rock star of surfing."
Like other hard-charging celebrities, Irons didn't necessarily see himself growing old. "He wanted to die young," surfer Koby Abberton recently told Australia's Stab magazine. "He knew it. Everyone knew it."
In 2002, when Kelly Slater returned to competition after a three-year hiatus, the assumption was that he would mop up. Far from it. Irons beat Slater and claimed the world title that year. Then he did it again in 2003 and 2004. "Andy Irons was the only worthy rival to the greatest surfer who's ever set foot on a board," says Warshaw.
Until a surfer other than Irons or Slater won—in 2007, the year Mick Fanning took the crown—that rivalry was heated and often extended beyond the waves. It also divided the surf world. You were either for Slater, the clean-living, Chomsky-quoting role model who competed in a white wetsuit, or you were for Irons, the cocky upstart who wore black and loved to talk trash.
"That time was a real pressure cooker for both of us," Slater now says of those days. "I felt like it was going to break me. I don't know what that was like for Andy."
"Andy really dreaded it after a while," says John Irons, Andy's Hanalei-based uncle. "He called it 'the circus.' Everywhere he'd go, people were hounding him. Everybody wanted something."
Still, Irons often gave. "We went on a trip to Cabo a couple years ago," recalls surf writer Jake Howard, of ESPN.com. "Kids came up and started asking him for stuff. He didn't have anything, so he literally gave one kid the shirt off his back."
Despite his abrasive public image, Irons was no prima donna. "Andy was a world champ, but he was one of us," says Lopez. "He would pile in the back of a Ford Ranger that had no seat, with three other guys."
For Irons, the world tour seemed to offer redemption. "It was so positive," says Brewer. "I just wonder where it went wrong again."
OUTWARDLY, THINGS BEGAN to break down during the 2005 season, when Slater won his seventh title. Irons still put up a fight, finishing second in 2005 and 2006, but signs had emerged that the pressure was getting to him, and his temper became legendary. After losing to friends at poker on a 2005 boat trip, he threw a laptop into the Pacific. During surf competitions, he raged through the competitors' areas after poor heats, at least once smashing his surfboard.
In late 2007, Irons was out of the running for the world title, which would wrap up in December, and rumors of his substance abuse were swirling inside the surf industry and on Internet discussion forums. "It became the elephant in the room," said Brewer. "Hearsay was that it was OxyContin."
In other sports, narcotics—and performance enhancers—would show up in tests. But the ASP doesn't conduct drug testing. The organization does allow event sponsors and governing bodies for host countries to conduct them, but it wouldn't comment on whether Irons was ever officially tested.
In November 2007, Irons and his longtime girlfriend, Lyndie Dupuis, got married on Kauai. Around that time, editors at various surf magazines got word that Irons had been in rehab and wanted to come clean publicly. But if a disclosure was planned, Irons never followed through.
"There was certainly internal knowledge that wasn't made public," says Evan Slater, former editor of Surfer and Surfing magazines. "In our world, you sort of look the other way, because it's a tight community."
Many industry insiders suggest it was the sponsors who scuttled Irons's plan to go public. After the near-death incident in Indonesia, Brewer said, one of Irons's then-sponsors asked him point-blank to keep quiet. "I was asked not to say anything to anybody," said Brewer. "I said to them, 'Well, are you going to keep an eye on the guy?' Maybe because of the amount of money he was making for that company—and from that company—it became an oversight, and nobody looked into it. Nobody cared."
One official with a former sponsor, who asked not to be named, acknowledges that his company was aware of Irons's substance abuse. "It was pretty apparent," he says. But he denies hiding it. "Do we advertise certain parts of our athletes' behavior? No. But do we actually cover it up? No." Billabong CEO Paul Naude declined to comment on whether his company knew of Irons's drug use.
Andy's father, Phil Irons, reached by cell phone on Kauai, wouldn't talk about it, either. "Those are problems that a lot of people go through," he said. "They're nothing to be brought up. Ever."
If Irons did decide to keep quiet, the decision seems puzzling in some ways. Other surfers have come clean in the past and actually boosted their public image as a result. Big-wave riders Peter Mel and Darryl "Flea" Virostko recently opened up about their use of methamphetamines. And Irons's own mentor, Billabong team rider Mark Occhilupo, bared his soul about kicking a cocaine habit before mounting a comeback in 1997.
Acquaintances say Irons did make private admissions. "He definitely came clean with his friends," says a source close to Irons. "He was totally open with me to the point where he said, 'Me and every housewife in America.' Then he was like, 'Fuck, the crazy thing is that people think things are way worse than they are.' He'd read the chat rooms."
Whatever treatment Andy received, John Irons says it helped. "Did it change his life? Yes. He was amped to get back on the tour. He was refocused and ready to go."
Kelly Slater recalls a conversation with Irons from around 2007. "A couple of years ago, he had an awakening in his life about things," says Slater. "We had one real deep talk. He said how excited he was to be feeling everything—to be feeling his emotions and understanding them. For him, that was a new lease on his life."
BUT IF IRONS WAS ON an uptick in 2007, it didn't last. His erratic behavior returned in September 2008, when he went missing during a World Tour contest in France. He surfed badly in one heat and then failed to show up for the next. He finished the year 13th overall but decided not to compete in 2009. "We encouraged Andy to take a year off," says Billabong's Naude, "because he had lost the desire to be on the tour."
Irons told friends that he'd almost been dropped by Billabong. According to Mike Reola, a friend and co-founder of the clothing company Lost, Irons said that "everyone at Billabong wanted me gone when I was off tour" and that "Paul Naude was the only one who fought for me." Irons also told friends that he took a substantial pay cut.
Asked to confirm that Irons had taken a cut, Naude said he couldn't recall, adding that "in terms of redoing his deal, we never had any issues, so I’m assuming everyone was happy."
This year was supposed to be the start of a comeback for Irons. Before the season started in February, he traveled to Australia to work with fitness trainer Wes Berg. But as the year began, Irons was quickly eliminated in the first four events.
Slater, who by that time had become close to Irons, says that Irons had confided in him. "He said, 'I'm having a lot of trouble wanting to be at contests and caring about this.'" Irons told other friends he felt trapped, because he believed that surfing on tour, which he didn't really like, was his only viable career option.
Meanwhile, his roller-coaster life continued. At the Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro surf contest— a non-tour event held last May in San Clemente, California—he surfed "as good as he'd ever surfed," according to Shea Lopez, and tied for third. But in June, when watch company Nixon hosted an annual event on the Fijian resort island of Tavarua, Irons's substance issues resurfaced.
Irons, who was accompanied by Lyndie, didn't surf much during the trip, though when he did paddle out to the island's fabled Cloudbreak, he scored the best rides of the day, tucking into the barrel for ten seconds at a time. Toward the trip's end, Irons began exhibiting strange behavior. "He tried to fight one of his close friends over something weird," says a guest who was there. Irons even called out the fellow surfer in the restaurant one night at dinner. Then, as the group was partying on the last night of the trip, Irons allegedly became violent.
The witness was told by others on hand that drugs were involved, but added that the scene didn't feature the standard trappings of a recreational-drug party. "It's not like in the old days, where there’s a room in the back with mounds of coke," he said. "Now, people pass around pills."
At one point, a friend went back to Irons's room, then returned to the party, saying that Irons had tried to start a fight with him. When others went to investigate, it took two surfers—one a former Navy SEAL, who was the trip's doctor, and the other a cage fighter—to restrain Irons, who was in a rage. Ultimately, he was sedated. "It's hard to explain how ugly it was," says the hotel guest. "Everyone was baffled."
Several sources indicate that Irons cleaned himself up after the incident on Fiji. By the time the World Tour came to Tahiti in September, he was sufficiently fit and focused to storm through heats and win. He was ecstatic, saying after the event: "My whole dream was to come back and just win one contest. I've done that now. I want more."
THOUGH IRONS'S FINAL DAYS are still shrouded in mystery, it's possible to piece together the main events. He arrived in Puerto Rico on the evening of October 27, but when his three-man heat hit the water midday on October 30, he wasn't there. After Irons failed to show, fellow competitors and members of the media immediately grew suspicious. "We'd all heard he was sick—stomach flu, fevers, something. Nobody knew what to believe," says ESPN’s Jake Howard.
Round-one heats on the tour aren't elimination rounds, so Irons was scheduled to surf the next day, October 31. Again he failed to show, and this time he called World Tour manager Renato Hickel to formally withdraw. Irons complained of flu-like symptoms and, as Hickel put it to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, "said he'd rather have a doctor come to see him because he was sick."
Irons was seen by a physician at his rented apartment in Isabela, a five-minute drive from the contest site. It's unclear what he was treated for, but it's known that a flu had been going around among surfers. Irons was taken to the airport on Sunday evening, where he was to begin his long trip back to Hawaii.
He arrived in Miami on Sunday night. A Billabong spokesperson told an Australian reporter that Irons had spent "two days" on an IV drip in Miami, which now seems unlikely. Sunday night was Halloween, and Irons, faced with an overnight layover, left the airport and headed for South Beach, according to one person he contacted that night by phone. Irons said he was "on Ninth and Ocean," had a "backpack and a wallet full of cash," and wanted to have some fun. He was connected with friends and went to a party.
Irons "had a few drinks," this person says, and at four in the morning he was placed in a cab and taken to Miami International Airport. His flight for Dallas left at 6:30 A.M.
In the days immediately following Irons's death, it was reported that, in Dallas, an extremely ill Irons had attempted to board his connecting flight to Honolulu at 11:30 that morning but was turned away at an American Airlines gate—a claim the company denies.
"American Airlines did not refuse or deny travel at any point for Mr. Irons," says airline spokesman Tim Smith. He says a female family member—who identified herself as Irons's wife—called two hours before the flight left, said he was sick, and canceled his ticket, rescheduling him for the same flight the next day.
Irons's flight to Dallas arrived at 8:35 A.M. on Monday, November 1. The Grand Hyatt at DFW is located inside Terminal D, so he was able to check in to his room by 8:47. He opened the door to Room 324 at 8:59, ate a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, drank a bottle of Evian, and downed a couple of soft drinks. He never opened the door again. The next morning, Isaac Ambriz, a security employee with the hotel, was informed by the hotel operator that Irons wasn't answering his wake-up calls. At 9:43, Ambriz arrived at the room.
"[I] knock and announce, but there was no answer," Ambriz said in a statement to police. "I enter the room and notice Mr. Irons in bed. I call out his name and knock on the wall several more times." At 9:47, Ambriz called his supervisor, Crystal Montero. The two entered the room, and Montero, as she told police, "went to the right side of the bed and turned on the right bed lamp. At that moment, I noticed Mr. Irons not breathing."
IN THEIR INVESTIGATION, airport police said that Irons had been found lying on his back with a sheet pulled to his neck, the bed's sheets and pillows "neatly set" and with nothing "out of the ordinary." Police noted that Irons's prescriptions for both Xanax and Ambien had been filled on October 26, 2010, the day before Irons arrived in Puerto Rico.
Despite Irons's history of substance abuse and reports of illness, one can only speculate about what killed him, and it may be that a tragic combination of, say, dengue fever and prescription drugs did him in. Irons had been bouncing around time zones, had gone without sleep, had been drinking in Miami, and, at least according to his wife, was ill on the inbound flight to Dallas.
Dr. Bruce Goldberger, director of toxicology at the University of Florida medical school, says combinations like this can be dangerous. "The usual doses of Ambien and Xanax are very safe, even when taken together," he says. "But if there was an underlying medical condition like pneumonia or sleep apnea, the person would be at greater risk. Sometimes, we see deaths with perfectly healthy people when they take a small amount more of the medication than prescribed."
Notably, Irons had been diagnosed as suffering from sleep apnea. Goldberger added that if methadone were added to the mix, the situation would be much more risky.
In the days following Irons's death, fans all over the world held paddle-out services to celebrate his legacy, and friends were left to wonder if Irons really would have thrown it all away with something as foolish as a drug overdose. "A lot of us were pretty hopeful that having a son was going to be a major turning point in his life," says one friend of the Irons family. "I've seen Andy be good and bad, but the one thing that cut through all the shit with him was that he was so excited to be a dad."
No matter what information emerges from the medical examiner's office, Irons's life won’t be completely defined by a toxicology report. Instead, when his son wants to learn about his father, he'll be told of a complex man who lived hard and fast, who relished his role in surfing but hated the fame that attended it, and who struggled mightily to overcome problems that he was never able to talk about.
No doubt he'll be told this as well: in a life marked by turmoil, riding waves brought Andy Irons a fleeting sense of peace. Surfing, he once said, "is the closest thing you can feel to being kissed by God."
Marco Giorgi - Innersection Teaser - by Loïc Wirth
Marco Giorgi - Innersection from Loïc Wirth on Vimeo.
Honolulu Premiere - 48 hours to go
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Friends of Andy Irons Fund
In response to copious amounts of requests for ways to help the Irons family, a fund has been set up to help Andy's unborn son, Axel Jason Irons, have a more stable future. A post on the Billabong website said:
"There has been a growing concern about the future of Andy and Lyndie’s unborn son and an overwhelming amount of requests from those who desire to support the soon to be growing family. With Lyndie’s permission, friends close to the family felt the only right thing to do would be to find a way to make sure that Andy’s legacy was honoured by establishing an account that will help in providing the maintenance, health and education for Andy’s soon to be son.
The Friends of Andy Irons Fund has been set up to offer an outlet for the great generosity that the entire surf community (and many others who were touched by Andy) felt so deeply.
The fund is set up as a legitimate professional fund service to insure legal status and tax requirements."
Bank: First Hawaiian Bank
Account Name : Friends of Andy Irons
Account Number : 84-019135Font: Stab Mag
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Jay Davies
West-Australian Jay Davies recently got back from the US, where he lived for three months. While overseas, he also did a bunch of contests in Europe, but he says he didn't surf a wave over three feet the whole time he was out of Australia. He returned to WA to find his home break, Rabbits, straight-up firing. It has stayed consistent the whole time he's been home, making him question why he'd ever want to leave when he's got it so good right in his backyard. He's been surfing a whole lot and plans to start making more and more clips like the one above, having bought a new camera and hired his brother Wyatt to be full-time personal filmer. He's even taking Wyatt to Hawaii with him next week, to capture all the action.
Jay says he officially hung up the competitive boots after the Europe leg and is going to concentrate on free-surfing and making more clips for his blog. After the run of contests, he was left asking himself, "Is this really what I wanna be doing?"
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Weird Team - Getting ready for the Dark Tricks
Weirdos On Wheels from hollyweird on Vimeo.
Weird Team: Etam Paese, Alan Fendrich, Cristian Muller, Gabriel Muller, Tiago Arraes
edição Pablo "Bola" Aguiar
WEIRD DARK TRICKS presents: meet some tricksters
Ryan Carlson
Etam Paese
Zach Rhinehart
Marlon Klein
Gustavo Schlickmann
Felipe Faraco
Cristian Muller
Alan Fendrich
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Tomas Hermes TV - Ep 6
Episodio 06 from TomasHermesTV on Vimeo.
william cardoso . marco giorgi . jeronimo vargas . junior faria . alejo muniz . tomas hermes
Who's Ryan Callinan?
Who Is Ryan Callinan? from Jay Grant on Vimeo.
Who is he? He's 18, he's from Merewether, Newcastle, and you should get to know his name. Watch the above clip and you'll understand why. Kid's flairing! Shot around his home at Merewether, Dixon Park and Fraser Park, this is an insight into what Ryan's got going on.
The flip you see him trying (similar to Flynn Novak's Kustom Airstrike-winning number, but different), is something he and fellow-Novocastrian Craig Anderson've been experimenting with. Craig's nailed one and Ryan's come pretty damn close, as you can see. Ryan also got a few little backside inventions in the works.
Ryan's headed off to Hawaii next week for a month, travelling with filmer Jay Grant (who put together this little doozy of a clip). He's staying at the Billabong house at V-Land, and plans to surf Rocky Point everyday. So keep an eye peeled for some Hawaiian shred coming this way real soon.Stab Mag
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Andy Irons - The End of the Party
Hawaiian Andy Irons is dead. He was 32. Andy, the three-time world champion and the only a surfer to challenge and beat Kelly Slater at his peak, had been diagnosed with Dengue Fever, a mosquito-borne disease. Andy caught the disease in Puerto Rico, where an outbreak of Dengue Fever this year has resulted in 8381 confirmed infections and 29 deaths.
Too ill to compete in the WT event there, he left the island and flew to Miami where he was put on a drip by a doctor. Andy wanted to see his own doctor in Hawaii, but on the connecting flight from Miami to Dallas he began vomiting. He left the flight and checked into a hotel room at the Grand Hyatt, DFW. Andy was found dead in his bed by hotel staff when he failed to answer a wake-up call. He was pronounced dead at 9:46am, CST. An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow at nine am to determine the cause of death. If a toxicology test is required, it may take up to three months to complete.
Kala Alexander, 41, a world-renowned big-wave surfer from Andy’s home island of Kauai, was nine when Andy was born. “He was born in my mom’s sister’s car on the way to the hospital. I’ve been there since day one. I’ve held him in my arms all through his years in diapers. I knew something serious was up when Andy didn’t show for his heat in Puerto Rico. I had a bad feeling.”
Kala added: “I don’t know who let him check into a hotel room and not a hospital. You need a nurse. A friend. Anyone.”
Andy's wife Lyndie is six weeks away from giving birth to their first child, a boy, Axel Jason Irons.
"I've had my fair shares of hills and valleys, but my life's been radical and exciting. Stuff that kings would die to do. Straight up, fucken A. The lifestyle we've got and the life I've led since I was 17, I can't even tell my friends. I try and tell stories and they think I'm making it up or saw it in a fucking movie. Straight up. It's the life I wanted since I caught my first wave." Andy Irons, October 12, 2010. – Derek Rielly (with additional reporting by Sam McIntosh)
Mourners around the world have shown their grief in numerous ways. The Puerto Rico Search event called a lay-day out of respect for Andy, with all surfers, event organisers and hundreds of admirers paddling out for a memorial ceremony. Nine-time world world champion Kelly Slater was amongst those who attended the ceremony: "A few weeks ago I had a friend going over to Kauai to see Andy, and I said send him a message: When Andy surfs angry he smashes people and tell him to come to PR angry, focus that energy and use it," Slater said. "So my friend called him and said he told AI the message and AI said he’s ready and I was so looking forward to see him surf this week. Just to see him."
"There aren’t words to describe," Slater said. "Unfortunately I’ve been through this with friends. There’s nothing that can make it better. You just have to feel it and process all those memories."
One particular memorial was crafted by Justin Jay in an unlikely location, downtown New York. "It's such terrible day for the surfing community," Justin said. "This is a guerilla wheat paste installation that I did last night as a tribute to Andy from the City of New York. Please feel free to forward to anyone who you think might appreciate knowing that we’re thinking of Andy here in New York City." – Elliot Struck
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
RIP Andy Irons
STAB MAG
Hawaiian Andy Irons is dead. He was 32. Andy, the three-time world champion and the only a surfer to challenge and beat Kelly Slater at his peak, had been diagnosed with Dengue Fever, a mosquito-borne disease. Andy caught the disease in Puerto Rico, where an outbreak of Dengue Fever this year has resulted in 8381 confirmed infections and 29 deaths.
Too ill to compete in the WCT event there, he left the island and flew to Miami where he was put on a drip by a doctor. Andy wanted to see his own doctor in Hawaii, but on the connecting flight from Miami to Dallas he began vomiting. He left the flight and checked into a hotel room at the Grand Hyatt, DFW. Andy was found dead in his bed by hotel staff when he failed to answer a wake-up call. He was pronounced dead at 9:46am, CST. An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow at nine am to determine the cause of death. If a toxicology test is required, it may take up to three months to complete.
Andy's wife Lyndie is six weeks away from giving birth to their first child, a boy, Axel Jason Irons.
"I've had my fair shares of hills and valleys, but my life's been radical and exciting. Stuff that kings would die to do. Straight up, fucken A. The lifestyle we've got and the life I've led since I was 17, I can't even tell my friends. I try and tell stories and they think I'm making it up or saw in in a fucking movie. Straight up. It's the life I wanted since I caught my first wave." Andy Irons, October 12, 2010.
Derek Rielly---------------------------------------------------------
TRANSWORLD SURF
It is with a heavy heart that we spread this news of Andy Irons untimely death. Initial reports have him passing away after getting dengue fever in Puerto Rico where outbreaks have been reported. On Sunday, Andy, 32, withdrew from the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico citing an illness. According to reports which have yet to be confirmed, Andy was so sick he was unable to board his flight from Dallas to Kauai, got a hotel room, and was found there dead by an employee leaving behind a pregnant wife, family, and world full of friends and fans.
More details to follow.
Andy will be greatly missed by all.
Andy took the ASP World Tour by storm and won the World Championship in 2002, 2003, and 2004. He will be remembered as the one guy in the world who could regularly beat Kelly Slater and his surfing in waves of consequence will live on forever. Just this year, Andy was one of five surfers we chose to have in the TransWorld SURF surf movie, High Five. His part was last (given to the best performing surfer) and perfectly displayed his legendary backside tube riding skills and man-sized hacks.
Our deepest condolences go out to the friends and family of Andy. Please show respect in your comments as this is a terribly sad day for the family and friends of AIChris Coté
Zana Hickel
O video traz André Zanini como Renato Hickel, tour manager da ASP International, mandando ver na locução, assim como os convidados Mickey Bernardoni no papel de Luke Stedman, além do vocalista Nego, da banda catarinense Nego Joe, interpretando o popstar Ben Harper.
Ficha Técnica
Direção e Produção: Mickey Bernardoni
Renato Hickel: André Zanini
Ben Harper: Nego Joe
Luke Stedman: Mickey Bernardoni
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