Instead of preparing to celebrate Kelly Slater winning an unprecedented tenth ASP World Tour championship, competitors, industry executives and fans around the world are mourning the passing of one of Slater's longtime rivals.
It's a time for mourning, of course, but also for head-scratching, as circumstances surrounding Irons' death, at only 32, are both tragic and bizarre.
His body was found Tuesday morning in a Dallas hotel room, after he had failed to respond to a wake-up call. The surfer had recently become ill and was trying to return to Hawaii from a contest in Puerto Rico, and was in Dallas for a layover.
While Irons was said to have been suffering from symptoms associated with dengue fever, investigators searching the hotel room found Alprazolam (Xanex) and a prescription bottle of Ambien. An autopsy was performed Wednesday at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office, but lab results probably won't be available until Friday, according to spokesman Marc Flake.
Meanwhile, the Association of Surfing Professionals and its World Tour competitors -- still in Puerto Rico for the season's second-to-last competition -- are trying to come to grips with an event that essentially has left the surfing community reeling.
ASP CEO Brodie Carr said in a video statement: "The surfers today lost a brother. We all lost one of our fellow tribesmen and one of our family that we've been traveling with for many, many years, and it's a very sad day for all of us."
Irons had become ill at the previous competition in Portugal. Other surfers have attested to that and some reportedly also became sick.
Irons did not show for his first-round heat Saturday in Puerto Rico, and he officially withdrew Sunday. Dave Prodan, ASP spokesman, said it's still unclear whether Irons sought help from its medical staff. "Aside from Andy withdrawing from the event due to illness, ASP was unaware of the severity of it," Prodan said.
Irons admittedly battled "inner demons" occasionally throughout his career, and sought the ocean and its waves as a means to escape them. He loved being home on Kauai, and became homesick during his travels.
"He spent the better part of his career torn between wanting to conquer the world and wanting to get home," said Chris Mauro, who worked at Surfer magazine during the early careers of Andy Irons and his younger brother, Bruce, a former World Tour competitor. "There was always that conflict and it was always a tug-of-war for both of them because they come from such a beautiful place."
While there remain unanswered questions, what's crystal clear is that pro surfing lost not only an icon but one of its genuine characters, the pride of the Kauai, whose wife, Lyndie, is about to give birth to the couple's first child, a son.
The family has requested privacy "so their focus can remain on one another during this time of profound loss," and reaction from other surfers has only begun to trickle forth.
"Words can never explain how I feel right now. R.I.P. Andy, I know I will see you again," Sunny Garcia, a former world champion and fellow Hawaiian, wrote on his Facebook page.
Slater, when reached in Puerto Rico, referred to Irons as "an absolutely gifted individual."
Some of the heated duels between Slater and Irons, especially those in big waves at the fabled Banzai Pipeline, are legendary. The two surfers did not always like each other and Slater, 38, credits Irons for reigniting his competitive fire during those years when Irons was winning his titles.
"I feel blessed that we worked through the differences we had and I was able to learn what I'm made of because of Andy," Slater said Wednesday. "We enjoyed many quiet times together with our girls in the last year and I got to know a happy, funny, innocent kid who was happy to live every second with the people he loved.
"It's a huge and far too premature loss for all of us. He was the most intense competitor I've ever known and one of the most sensitive people. He had so much life left in him and it hurts to think about."
Slater, who could clinch his 10th world title as early as Friday, is expected to dedicate the remarkable feat to Irons.
Irons' death also comes a week before the prestigious Vans Triple Crown of Surfing gets underway on Oahu's North Shore.
The Triple Crown, which has events at Haleiwa, Sunset Beach and Pipeline, is fiercely competitive. Irons won it four times, and also won its treasured jewel, the Pipeline Masters, four times.
"He reveled in competition and in stepping up to the plate and I think that's something in sport that anybody can admire," Triple Crown spokeswoman Jodi Wilmott told the Associated Press.
Irons and his younger brother, Bruce, are perennial invitees to the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau big-wave competition at hallowed Waimea Bay. Bruce is a past winner and the opening ceremony for the 2010-11 is later this month.
It's bound to be an emotional affair.
-- Photos of Andy Irons are courtesy of ASP
