He didn’t die in an exotic, far away place on a surfing trip. He didn’t die in massive waves or rough conditions. He didn’t die in competition at all. Not even in the water, which for most surfers, is the place they’d want to go out. 

Andy Irons, one of surfing’s greatest champions, died alone and hurting in a Dallas airport hotel room, hundreds of miles from the ocean. And it seems unfair, cruel even, because he’d earned something better than that. The cruelty is that it came just weeks before the birth of his first child.

Despite various news stories and a certain air of mystery currently surrounding his death, it’s fair to say at this point that his death was related to Dengue fever. For those who don’t know, Dengue fever is an illness transmitted by mosquitoes in the tropical regions of the world. The World Health Organization estimates there might be 50 million cases each year and it considers the disease an epidemic in more than 100 countries.

It can appear like a bad case of the flu at first, and then get worse, with symptoms including fever, severe headache, muscle and joint pain, rash around the body, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Even in recovery, symptoms can include prolonged fatigue and depression. If the infection advances to Dengue hemorrhagic fever, internal and external bleeding can occur, causing blood pressure to fall. Given the laundry list of possible symptoms, Irons’ final trek from Puerto Rico to Dallas seems superhuman.

The facts of Irons’ last few days are mostly known at this point:

He withdrew from the Rip Curl contest in Puerto Rico on Saturday, Oct. 30, due to what were described then as severe flu-like symptoms. He left Puerto Rico Sunday, Oct. 31 and took an American Airlines flight from Miami to Dallas, a scheduled stopover on his flight back to Hawaii. Shortly after boarding the connecting flight in Dallas, he was removed from the plane. Irons himself or a family member rescheduled the connecting flight for Tuesday morning and Irons checked in to the airport’s Grand Hyatt Hotel.  When Irons didn’t respond to a wake-up call Tuesday morning Nov. 2, hotel staff brought police in for a “welfare check.” Irons didn’t respond to a knock on the door and police entered to find Irons on his back in bed with the covers up to his neck. Rigor mortis had already set in.

This is a death profound and far reaching. The surfing industry and the surfing world has never dealt with the loss of a competitor as young, active and high profile as Andy Irons. There is simply nothing – not even the heroic death of Hawaii’s Eddie Aikau in 1978 – that has prepared the surf world to deal with this. 

The most apt comparison was made by an Irons’ family friend. 

“The North Shore felt like it was 9/11,” the friend said. 

And just like the collective mindset after the Sept. 11 attacks, no one knows exactly how to feel, what to say or what to do. Nothing feels quite right. A mass of people are simply dumbfounded and caught so completely off guard, it’s hard to figure out how to go forward. 

Now like then, some things have helped ease the pain. Memorial paddle outs in Puerto Rico, Bali and Australia and a massive one scheduled for Hawaii with an expected 3,000 people, give proper tribute to a fallen brother and icon. Nature demonstrated its emotion for an island son too, as rain fell in Hawaii for five consecutive days from the announcement of his death, an element surely adding to Irons’ legend.

And for certain, surfers around the world dedicated a wave or a session to him, raised a glass or will name their child in his honor. 

But beyond these things, what next? 

Andy Irons’ legacy will be defined better in time, but his ascendency to the upper reaches of pro surfing’s world champion club came after years on the radar as a hotshot teen surfer, and 1998 World Junior champ. He made his mark not only as part of a new group of acrobatic surfers, but as a rarity among champions. His tall, muscular frame and all-American good looks often made him look more like captain of the football team than a guy who caught waves for money. He was no “Spicoli.” And his arrival was the right thing at the right time for surfing. Irons was a surfer to his core and 100 percent Hawaiian in his soul and offered the surfing world an exciting new face when the sport and industry were working hard to expand beyond their usual boundaries and Kelly Slater had gone into semi-retirement. AI, as he was nicknamed, brought a new athleticism and adrenaline to the world tour as one of the most powerfully versatile surfers of his generation.

And perhaps most memorably, he was the one guy who could beat Slater outright. And repeatedly. As Irons said, “He’s just another human.” He was the hero for the anti-Slater set and was so far, the only legitimate rival to Slater’s towering dominance, winning world titles in 2002, 2003 and 2004. And though the rivalry eventually cooled into a friendship, even Irons’ passing provided one last thorn in Slater’s side. The incredible achievement of Slater winning his 10^th world title at the same Rip Curl event in Puerto Rico from which Irons had withdrawn a few days earlier, was clearly overshadowed by Irons’ death. And Slater, rightfully so, declared that he wouldn’t have returned from that brief retirement and eventually pushed himself to a handful of additional titles without being inspired by how Irons had pumped new life into the men’s tour.

Irons was an athlete enjoying something of a professional comeback and personal renaissance. After a sabbatical from the tour in 2009, he returned this season a competitor more at peace with himself and a married man about to be a father. But he hadn’t softened much. Ninth place finishes at Bell’s Beach, Jeffries Bay and a victory at Teahupoo proved it. The day he died he was ranked a respectable 16^th.   

With the surf world still lurching to put meaning to a heartbreak never suffered before, Andy Irons’ untimely death does raise important questions that the surfing industry and the world’s fraternity of surfers and water lovers will have to figure out. 

I offer these questions with no answers, and nothing implied, except perhaps the possibility that something somehow positive can be made out of the end of a young man’s life. 

*Will ASP re-examine how it deals with the medical issues of athletes on tour, furthermore, how might the brands look at medical issues for their athletes?

*Has pro surfing been dodging bullets for years because no previous high profile tour member has died or nearly died from dengue?

*Will pro surfers take better care to avoid dengue and other tropical diseases?

*How will the death of a 32-year-old, three-time world champ affect the other athletes on the men’s and women’s tours? 

*How will this affect Andy’s younger brother Bruce, a gifted surfer in his own right, and Andy’s widow Lyndie and her child?

*How will international surf media deal with it? 

*At what point could AI memorial products of any kind cross over from tribute to exploitation?

*Will event organizers rethink how they run contests in regions where viruses like dengue are a threat; consequently, how will it affect efforts to expand pro surfing in the third world?

*Could the demise of a prominent professional athlete from Dengue fever lead to better awareness and consequent efforts to control and fight a disease running rampant in the tropical third world?

*If there is anything to be learned from this, what would Andy want it to be?

 Photos courtesy ASP/Billabong

It could only be Kelly Slater who got to surf glassy, 8-foot waves at Lower Trestles all by himself. But that’s how the final morning of the 2010 Hurley Pro began -- with great symbolism. And if you include the coastal fog, it was kind of like “Brigadoon.” 

By the afternoon, Slater was even more by himself at Lowers in the record books, after easily beating Australia’s Bede Durbidge 18.13-14.13 on Sept. 18th for his fourth title at the U.S. mainland’s best performance wave. Despite last year’s semi-final loss to Mick Fanning, Slater is virtually untouchable at Lowers where he has reached the finale six of the last seven years. It’s a kind of dominance that is alone in the world of surfing and certainly rare in all of sports.

The return to form at Lowers for the nine-time world champ also scrambled the world title race and brought him back to no. 1 in the men’s rankings, a place he’s fairly familiar with. But that gift was handed to him well before the final, when previous no. 1, South Africa’s Jordy Smith, was eliminated by Durbidge in the quarters. 

Slater got a free pass in his morning Round 5 heat against Australian Chris Davidson, who was too hung over to compete. And if Round 5 sounds wrong it was because it was the first time a modern ASP Men’s World Tour event has had a Round 5. As part of last fall’s major revamping of the tour, the Hurley Pro is the first event to feature a pared down men’s tour of 32 and the consequent changes to the contest format, which, so far, has the surfer’s full support. 

Slater opened up the lead early by carving two good turns and pulling an air on a longer right for a 7.9 just a few minutes into the finale. On the next set, Slater slashed the lip three times, carved a big cutback and pulled another air for an 8.6 and had Durbidge comboed. And while Durbidge struggled to find or stay on a good wave, Slater took two shorter rights for 6-plus scores that were simply throwaways. To wrap up the heat, Slater then paddled into the longest barrel anyone has ever ridden in the history of the contest for a 9.53.

With time running down, Durbidge climbed out of the combo situation but not within striking distance of the champ. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVEgBOaK0As

“I was a little nervous last night and this morning. I didn’t feel right,” Slater said after. “So it felt good to have a free surf and see how the judges were scoring.” It told him all he needed to know.

Honestly, the final day of the Hurley Pro was a strange one. Though conditions were excellent, heats were surprising lopsided. Despite Durbidge’s best efforts in the final, easily the best heat of the day was Slater’s duel with Owen Wright in the quarterfinals. Wright challenged him to the end and the last exchange was pure fun: With a couple of minutes left, Wright’s gutsy decision to take a good left knowing they weren’t offering long rides was commendable, if maybe naive. Slater took the next wave of the set, a right that lined up just enough and sealed Wright’s fate. Slater described it as “The game changer” in his day. 

This set up the semi-final rematch against defending world and event champ Fanning. In what should have been a knock-down drag out, Fanning never built momentum or stayed on a wave long enough to challenge Slater. Even Slater seemed surprised. “I was happy to get through, but bummed because people want to see good surfing.”

And with the victory over Fanning, Slater seemed very back on course for title number ten and for continued dominance at Lowers. In absorbing the loss last year to Fanning, Slater appeared distracted and on the defensive by the continuing bad press and tension that had ensued because of the so-called “Kelly Tour” or Champions Surf Tour, a proposed breakaway men’s tour that sent the ASP into turmoil, he had somehow attached himself to. One year later and almost two decades to the day since Slater had won his first professional contest at the same spot, he was once again the man in the driver’s seat, and the surfer most directly responsible for the new look ASP.

And there he stood again, with his big check and trophy, all alone at Lower Trestles.

Photos and video by Hurley

Simpson, 25 years old, won his second consecutive Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing Aug. 8 beating current top rated surfer in the world, Jordy Smith of South Africa at the Huntington Beach Pier. Machado was part of the celebration. Both are Southern California surfers. Both are Hurley guys, but there the paths diverge.

Machado, 37 years old, has won more U.S. Opens – three to be exact – and more heats than any other surfer since the inaugural event in 1994. Machado’s legacy of dominance will remain part of the event’s history, but Sunday he was quite aware his competitive skills aren’t what they used to be while Simpson’s are still heating up. And he’s got two titles already in the bag.

But what was obvious to the throngs jammed along the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier, cheering and taking cell-phone pictures, was also washing over Machado.  Simpson is a local. Simpson grew up surfing this spot. Every regular Orange County reader of Surfer and Surfing magazines has seen his glossy image plenty of times across those pages. He already possesses something Machado never could, no matter how beloved a figure he will always be in this town. The Zen master lives in Cardiff, 70 miles south. Brett Simpson will be the first genuine and proven local (Huntington Beach) hero U.S. Open fans have to root for.

In the 2009 final, Simpson took a decisive victory over eventual world champ Mick Fanning in quality waves. In this year’s final, where the waves were small and inconsistent, Simpson buried Smith (13.97-8.33). The South African caught the first decent ride, but his insistence to find rights in a week when there were few and very short had Simpson looking good by the time he caught his first wave, where he slashed the lip twice for a 5.50 and a lead he would never surrender.

But the lefts available in the final, and for that matter most of the week were not the longer, sectioned lefts that Machado has utilized to towering success here. These broke in shorter close-out sections near the pier and never reformed on the inside. They required an explosive first move because nobody riding them knew if they’d ever get a second. An approach Simpson seemed to almost intuitively understand.

Simpson displayed a tangible confidence in his heats, a confidence without swagger or carelessness. It showed in his wave selection and how he handled each ride. And strangely, it was a basic understanding and exploitation of the right combination of things that no local surfer had successfully used at Huntington Beach since Shane Beschen in the mid 1990s. Partly it was based on his years of surfing this spot, but it was also based on the hard education rookies usually get in the first season on the Men’s World Tour.

“I’ve surfed these conditions here,” he said after the victory. “Even if it’s a little bumpy, it’s to my advantage and I feel I picked the right waves.”

The wheels were clearly turning in Simpson’s head. First, he flattered Smith, but then he got to his own learning curve and the effort it takes to train one’s self to fight the basic surfer’s instinct. “He’s not going on crap waves, that’s why he’s number one. He’s surfing smarter,” Simpson said. “I want to catch waves, but I’d rather win.”

He’d told me a few weeks earlier in an interview for Coast Magazine that he “Just hasn’t done the work yet” on tour to be successful, but that he was learning and “Things will turn around soon.”

They promptly did. At the Billabong Pro Jeffries Bay on Smith’s home turf, Simpson finished just short of the quarterfinals. A little more than a week later, he’d beaten nine-time world champ Kelly Slater and the guy likely to be this year’s champ in the same afternoon. 

“Everyone wants you to defend your title and that’s stressful, so I couldn’t get ahead of myself,” Simpson said, standing near Machado behind the podium. “The title was last year.” 

But a minute later, Simpson would be officially anointed with his second large U.S. Open trophy (a faux crosscut barnacled section of Huntington Beach Pier pylon) and as he held the large $100,000 prop check over his head, it was Machado helping to spray the young surfer with Champagne.

Of course, Simpson has one more men’s final victory and lots of heats left to catch Machado in statistics. But this was about public perception, and Machado understood that. If it bothered him, he would never show it. 

Brett Simpson, in beating Smith, became the first men’s surfer to win consecutive titles in U.S. Open history and the first local as well. Over the 51 summers that have held large scale surfing contests at the pier, former world champ Mark Occulupo of Australia was the only previous surfer to do so and that was back in the prime of the now long defunct OP Pro.

Also, since Bob Hurley’s company took over sponsorship of the event, he increased the first place prize to $100,000, the largest in surfing history. Hurley’s largesse puts Simpson in the unique spot of being the single highest money winner at a particular event too.

Former world champ Andy Irons of Hawaii has won the event twice as well, but in this town, he’s no Machado and certainly no Brett Simpson.

Machado gave Simpson a hug off the podium that was genuine. If the new king was really still a prince, it didn’t matter. Machado, probably the greatest surfer never to win a world title, understands things beyond competition too. Something in the intangible ether of cool that has shaped his own career. Something deeper about what all surfers share. And maybe something only the two of them will share when Simpson’s real coronation day comes.

1- Duke Kahanamoku.

2- Michael Vick is not associated with surfing in any way.

3- A surfer will never need to masquerade as a college student just to break into the pros.

4- All the steroids in the world wouldn’t make someone a better surfer. Neco Padaratz proved that.

5- Bud Selig is not associated with surfing in any way.

6- After a surfing contest final, you can usually shake hands with the winner.

7- If a surfer were to fall and break a leg during a contest, he or she wouldn’t have to be shot.

8- Viagra doesn’t sponsor any surfers. Yet.

9- There’s never a bad seat at the beach.

10- Bells Beach, Snapper Rocks, Jeffreys Bay, Steamer Lane, Cloud Break, Teahupoo, Trestles, and the North Shore of Oahu are better places than Houston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Orlando pretty much any day of the year.

11- No Astroturf. Ever.

12- Mark Twain and Jack London surfed.

13- Australian surfer girls have sexy accents. Canadian hockey players do not.

14- Boxing promoter Don King is not associated with surfing in any way.

15- Surfing: 85 degrees with you and your friends in the morning lineup. Football: a felony charge and your face in a police lineup.

16- Kelly Slater and Layne Beachley.

17- No beer lines.

18- Eddie Aikau.

19- Lisa Andersen.

20- The 1995 Pipeline Masters.

21- Tom Carroll and Tom Curren.

22- In other pro sports, a stadium is obsolete and broken down after 30 years. In surfing, a good spot may have taken a thousand years to form and might be good for another thousand.

23- Surfers will never threaten to move if taxpayers don’t build them a new beach.

24- The NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, and other sports are loaded with spoiled, narcissistic millionaires who live in a world unto themselves. Eddie Aikau died trying to save people.

25- No half-time shows.

26- Greg Long.

27- Gerry Lopez.

28- Pauline Menczer.

29- Hobie Alter.

30- Surfing’s Walk of Fame and Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach is right off the ocean. The NFL Hall of Fame is in Canton, Ohio, right off the freeway.

31- Taxpayers pay for stadiums named by crass corporations. God built surf spots. You get to name them. And you get to surf at them.

32- Bud Browne and Bruce Brown.

33- The North Shore of Oahu.

34- Doc Ball surfed into his 90s. Most athletes, especially football players have a career of five years.

35- Tom Blake.

36- The Dairyland Surf Classic.

37- Ted Williams, while being the greatest hitter in baseball history and an American hero, said hitting a major-league fastball was the most difficult thing in professional sports. No. Riding a piece of foam and fiberglass in the roaring mouth of a 25-foot aqua-blue beast at Teahupoo, with razor sharp coral just inches below the surface, and wearing nothing more than a pair of trunks (or even a bikini) and maybe a rash guard is THE hardest thing to do in professional sports.

38- Maverick’s.

39- Surfing hasn’t changed much since the invention of the foam and fiberglass board 60 years ago. In the same time, football is almost unrecognizable.

40- The only positive thing about hurricanes: hurricane swell.

41- There is no off season for surfing.

42- Surfing can be done in the coldest, most miserable weather imaginable too. New England and Great Lakes surfers prove that every winter.

43- The sound of Occy’s laugh.

44- Shaun Tomson.

45- Despite the 1986 OP Pro, fans routinely riot after World Cups, Superbowls, NBA and NHL Finals. After a major surfing event, a lot of people go out for another surf.

46- Sofia Mulanovich.

47- A kid could grow up surfing in front of his house without ever breaking a neighbor’s window.

48- Robert August.

49- Surfing with a dolphin.

50- Surf camps are run not only to help disabled and impoverished kids, they’ve brought white and black South Africans and Catholic and Protestant Irish kids together.

51- Waimea Bay.

52- It’s more dangerous to play one season of high school football than to surf 20 years at a spot where sharks are sited.

53- Rob Machado.

54- Greg Noll.

55- The only way you can afford to take your family to an NBA, NHL, NFL, or Major League Baseball game is to own a corporation or take out a second mortgage on your house.

56- Listening to Greg Noll tell a story.

57- Great Lakes surfers will drive 100 miles in horrible weather to find a decent spot to surf for a day. IN horrible weather. Nobody ever did that for a golf course.

58- One positive thing about the Vietnam War: good surfing.

59- Jay Moriarty.

60- George Steinbrenner is not associated with surfing in any way.

61- Kennesaw Mountain Landis is not associated with surfing in any way.

62- Scott Boras is not associated with surfing in any way. Yet.

63- Your secret spot.

64- No one in surfing will ever be stupid enough to legally change their last name to “Ocho Cinco.” No one.

65- Leroy Grannis, Art Brewer, Jeff Divine, Tom Servais, Aaron Chang, and Larry “Flame” Moore.

66- U.S. Open of Surfing: bikini bodies as far as the eye can see. NASCAR: rednecks as far as the eye can see.

67- Most of the time, wiping out is still more fun than getting punched in the face, tackled by a lineman, hit by a fastball, or crashing into a concrete wall.

68- Surfing contests are never held in Las Vegas.

69- Surfboard shaping is an art performed individually by shapers who not only cater to the exact specifications of surfers and locations, but who often form lasting friendships with their customers to help improve their surfing and thus, their stoke. Ever met anybody who makes basketballs?

70- Even your grandpa looks cooler in a pair of boardshorts than anyone ever will in golf pants.

71-Most pro football and basketball players are freaks. Most pro surfers are athletic, but normal-looking human beings.

72- Wetsuits and rash guards are slimming.

73- All basketball courts, football fields, boxing rings, and hockey rinks are identical. Every surf spot on the planet is unique.

74- Much of the modern sports world is lost in statistics. Competitive surfing has hardly any at all.

75- You’ll never have to tap into your 401(k) to buy season tickets to see your local surfers.

76- No corporate suites.

77- The 2009 U.S. Open of Surfing.

78- Announcers will never demand a whole beach be quiet. And they’ll never do it just so you can hear surfers grunt.

79- Watching a surfer fly off a wave is exciting. Watching a race car fly off the track is tragic.

80- Surfing makes you think of summer. Even if you’re watching a webcast of the Pipeline Masters while decorating your house for Christmas. In Finland.

81- Crime statistics prove that violent crime goes up after people watch a major boxing match. When you watch a surf contest, you just want to go out and surf.

82- No designated hitter. Ever.

83- The equivalent of kicking a field goal in surfing would be just paddling out.

84- Nobody except the inbred ever go out for a morning fight with friends. Not even in Hawaii.

85- People don’t have to be kicked out of their homes and neighborhoods to build a surf spot.

86- The 2008 Maverick’s Surf Contest final.

87- Hearing a Bob Marley song for the 500^th time at a surf contest is still better than having to hear “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll, Part 2″ or the drum/clap opening of “We Will Rock You” one more time.

88- Rell Sunn.

89- Surfing gives Australia the chance to rule the world for a change.  

90- At the better spots, there’s always a chance you’ll surf along side pros, including some of the best in surfing history. There’s zero chance Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson or Larry Bird will join your pickup game.

91- You’ll never have to join a country club to surf a good spot.

92- Rich Harbour, Dale Velzy, “Flippy” and Walter Hoffman.

93- Whitey Harrison.

94- Basketball was born in a P.E. class. Surfing was born in Hawaii.

95- “The Endless Summer,” “Five Summer Stories” and “Riding Giants.”

96- Surfing is the only athletic activity that has spawned an entire genre of music.

97- Old surfers get skin cancer, but old football players and boxers get Alzheimer’s.

98- O.J. Simpson, Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, Bobby Knight, Albert Belle, John Rocker, Mike Tyson, Pacman Jones, Kobe Bryant, Terrell Owens, Bobby Fischer, Randy Moss, John Daly, Latrell Sprewell, Tonya Harding, Diego Maradona, Ray Lewis, Marion Jones, Jayson Williams, Floyd Landis, Roger Clemons, and Dennis Rodman are not associated with surfing in any way.

99- Surfing is essentially an athletic and creative reaction to the natural tidal flow and weather patterns on planet Earth. Football, basketball, hockey, auto racing, wrestling, rugby, boxing, and soccer are reminders of war, riots, traffic jams, Roman bloodsport, and the fight for survival.

100-Surfing is a way of life. Aloha.

Photo ASP

Huge, fast moving swell and extreme tide changes kept conditions big, bumpy and incredibly difficult for surfers to catch. In fact, it made it pretty difficult for fans too. Boards were lost and broken and surfers battered in the water while the morning high tide injured 13 spectators, washed away a medical tent and nearly knocked over the announcer’s tower at Pillar Point. 

All the more interesting was the fact that this year’s contest was the first without pioneering founder Jeff Clark and the first where the 24 invitees voted on when to run the contest. Longtime Mavs surfers Grant Washburn and Matt Ambrose were two who reportedly voted against. 

Nevertheless, Bertish become the second South African and the third surfer from somewhere other than Northern California to win the contest and took home $50,000. 

Reigning Maverick’s and Eddie Aikau champ Greg Long was a shock early elimination, catching only one wave in his first heat before he was kicked off his board and bounced off the seafloor. Other former Mavs champs Darryl “Flea” Virostko and Grant “Twiggy” Baker reached the semifinals and Anthony Tashnick reached the final. 

Once there, conditions had changed notably from morning to afternoon. The 30-foot plus to 40-foot waves and more consistent sets were replaced by waves over 40 feet but with tortuously long lulls that forced judges to extend the already hour-long finale another 15 minutes.  

Shane Desmond opened the final a few minutes in, just beating out the spit of a giant barrel for an early lead before things went (comparatively) flat. Bertish made a big drop to seemingly rally against Desmond just as the extension began and shortly before another lull passed through. It wasn’t until there were approximately five minutes left that the other surfers, Tashnick, Carlos Burle, Dave Wassell and longtime contest regular Ken Collins got their first rides. Desmond caught a second wave and Bertish his second and the last of the heat before Bertish was declared the winner.

The contest also struggled with its growing popularity through a Webcast that was either unreachable or unsustainable to many fans and whose commentators were generally panned.

But the contest remained a satisfying experience despite the growing pains and the bitter public divorce between Clark and his former company that now divides much of the local community, with its biggest prize purse yet ($150,000) and the knowledge that what happens at Maverick’s no longer stays there.

Jake Halstead led Team USA with a silver in the Boys Under 16 and Lakey Peterson earned copper for the girls. Yes, we should have won more, but these are hopeful signs. 

Honestly, it was easy to get disappointed about the end result. Expectations were impossibly high after Team USA won their first gold medal in 13 years last summer in Costa Rica at the World Surfing Games. But that was the full pro/am team that featured Cory Lopez, Ben Bourgeois, Sage Erickson and Tony Silvagni. This was the junior team.

New head coach Ian Cairns set a high bar for himself and the team in Costa Rica. He was third in a line of coaches that had been part of a rebuilding effort over the last decade.  Cairns sought the best young talent in the county and worked them hard. But the disappointing finish seemed to expose what has hung around Team USA’s neck for several years: Our development program isn’t as good as Australia’s and it might never be. 

Talented? Yes, without question. And the major rebuilding of the team by former coaches Peter Townend and Joey Buran have helped restored the U.S. to a perennial medal winner. But even Cairns now knows the distance between the gold medal and everything else is big. And that the only thing harder for the U.S. program than winning gold is to keep winning it.

The main difference between the Australian and U.S. programs at this point is that we lack consistently effective young competitors because we simply have more options than the young Aussies ever will.

The Yanks and Aussies have a different rate of development. The famously intense training program for their young surfers and the Australian culture breeds an emphasis of competitive results over everything else. The money and options most young American surfers have tends to result in a longer development period. The 16- and 17-year-old Aussies are competing at a level most American surfers get to at about 21. And there’s more of them.

Right now, the junior team is entirely too dependent on the success of rising star Courtney Conlogue. If she has an off event and fails to medal (this event was her worst finish in two years), there aren’t many surfers ready to step up behind her. Fortunately, Peterson and Halstead gave inspiring performances. Inspirational because they should inspire the rest of the team to work harder and smarter and not let everything rest on Conlogue. Inspirational because they imply the team has more ability than appears on the surface. Especially important for an underachieving boys squad. 

At an industry level, sponsors must remain vigilant in pressing teen surfers on competition. Surfing America must keep the standards high and if their pursuit of an Olympic platform for surfing can motivate young surfers’ desire for fame, so be it. I have no problem with them dangling that carrot. Even if the Olympic thing never happens. 

But if I offer this kudos to Peterson, Halstead and Team USA for another medal-winning performance, it comes with its own qualification: Young surfers of America, nothing glitters like gold.

Photos/Surfing America

Over two months after the opening ceremony, but before the first wave of this winter’s contest is surfed, there are signs of trouble at North America’s biggest surf spot. Jeff Clark’s new lawsuit against Maverick Surf Ventures, Inc. is the latest shot in a battle over what the present and future of the Maverick’s Surf Contest will be. And this week, all of it seems bad.

Clark filed the suit Jan. 19 with the Superior Court of San Francisco County alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties and fraud. Clark said in a statement, he sought to “Put an end to this mistake of a partnership and … move on with my life.”

The pioneering big wave surfer and founder of the contest lost his position as contest director last June in a scrap with MSV. Depending on who you ask, he was either fired or resigned. And despite both sides claiming they wished to sort things out privately through mediation, the tensions that led to Clark’s departure seem to have only worsened since. Clark said he was “forced” to file suit after repeated attempts at mediation were delayed by MSV.

“I trusted the wrong people,” Clark said. “They have refused to honor the contracts they created and have turned the contest into a corporate circus.”

In response, Maverick Surf Ventures’ CEO Keir J. Beadling called the claims “baseless” and the suit “premature and inappropriate” and “an ill-advised and clumsy ploy to disrupt the contest season and prevent the competitors and the fans from experiencing a contest.”

Beadling also hoped Clark would “recognize the wisdom of keeping this matter private” before claiming that Clark “Earned more money from MSV than anyone until June 2009 when he was terminated for breaching his agreements with the company. Jeff was completely aware of the … outside capital the company has raised, and even now owns more stock in MSV than anyone. He held a seat on the Board of Directors – which gave him power and control over the company’s activities – until he voluntarily resigned that seat shortly after his termination.  Regrettably, this is a situation of Jeff’s own doing.”

First and foremost this has become a distraction from one of the greatest sporting events in the U.S. and one of the greatest surfing contests in the world. And me writing this is part of the distraction. Regardless of whose side you’re on, it should be all about the contest right now, but it’s not.

The view presented in this is some vague sense of purity versus evolution. Beadling says it’s “a superficial argument that has been concocted to cover up wrongful activity,” but it’s nevertheless relevant because it is what the larger world might see. How can there be a Maverick’s contest without Clark? Or, how can the Maverick’s contest survive without growing?

It might very well all be hogwash but Clark’s lawsuit keeps this basic argument alive and public a little while longer. And rightly or wrongly, it’s now Beadling’s job to dispel it while running the contest.

I’m not taking sides and don’t pretend to know who’s right or more right, but the public sparring between MSV and Clark helps no one and the longer it goes on or more heated it becomes, the more it tarnishes the contest and divides the community. But my advice? Get this dispute back in private and wrap it up fast. Outsiders will forgive and forget pretty fast when there isn’t anything to argue about anymore.

Realistically, the contest has come too far now to just disappear. But what will remain some folks just ain’t gonna like. Accept it. That has been the nature of professional surfing from the very beginning and there’s no reason to think big wave surfing is different.

The Maverick’s Surf Contest needs sponsorship. It takes money – lots of it – to run the contest. To pay the judges and water rescue, to build the scaffolding, to pay for police and of course to reward the winner and invitees. The City of Half Moon Bay has come to embrace the event; after all, the surf spot alone generates millions of dollars for local coffers and the contest packs local hotels, restaurants and bars for two or three days each winter. But don’t expect the city to take ownership of the Maverick’s Surf Contest the way the City of Green Bay owns the Packers. Even if it did, plenty of folk wouldn’t like that either.

Disputes like this only scare away potential sponsors, even the best ones. No company is actually going to court controversy and step into a sponsorship role when the founder of the event and his former company are publically locked in mortal combat. It makes that corporate leadership seriously question what management of the contest has been and will be, and who or what they’ll be doing business with. Look for weak, unstable short-term deals in return.

This legal imbroglio has become a lightening rod between Jeff Clark friends and fans, and those who aren’t. Let us not trouble the waters at Pillar Point with division between surfers. The Mav’s regulars and invitees all know and respect Clark. But they love this contest too. The democratization of the contest since Clark’s departure that gave a consensus role to “the 24″ in shaping parts of the contest has also put them uncomfortably in the middle of disputes like this. Way to go.

And then there are most of the people on the outside, who by and large, only see this iconic contest and the awe it inspires. They will never know the particulars of the dispute and probably wouldn’t give a damn anyway.

In the end, the surfing world will split the difference. Regardless of the outcome, public sentiment will likely go with Clark, the pioneer, the founder, the surfer, the legend. But their attention and dollars will eventually go with the contest.

Both sides should strongly consider how far a public fight might damage the contest they say they love. Even in a personal battle for money and control, never underestimate the collateral damage. Tread carefully and lightly, gentlemen. This was all supposed to be about a passion for surfing.

The 2009 Billabong World Junior Championships wrapped up late last week with Laura Enever and Maxime Huscenot hoisting trophies. While Huscenot took a surprising victory and big step forward for Reunion Island surfers, Australia’s Enever, like Conlogue, has been on the brink a few times before. But apparently, this was her year and not Conlogue’s.

Every January, just around the quarterfinals, it’s like the tide goes out and exposes a brick wall in the middle of the surf zone that the Aussies have all figured out but Americans just slam into. But the current group of young American hopefuls have a couple of things to be positive about.

Americans overall did well enough. Conlogue and Nat Young reached the quarterfinals. Sage Erickson and Cory Arrambide finished just short of them. Dillon Perillo reached round 3. Disappointing yes, but it really could have been worse.

Conlogue and Young reaching the quarterfinals was no fluke. They are the mainland’s finest surfing prospects and each is a national amateur champ. They’ve been stars on the U.S. team for a few years and Conlogue’s already a genuine rising star with her huge victory in August’s U.S. Open and ISA gold medal.

Maybe the most important part of this is that both surfers have primed themselves well for a move up. Typically, winners of Billabong’s WJC event have been 18- and 19-years-old. Young and Conlogue are both 17. Whatever frustration they’re feeling can be put to good use next January.

Even sooner, Conlogue leads the U.S. team in Piha, New Zealand this week in the ISA World Junior Championship and will have to control her fire. The frustration of Narrabeen is still in her system. It is up to her and head coach Ian Cairns to make sure it doesn’t burn her our early, but instead lights the way for a group of young surfers who could follow her example.

Rip Curl’s Bonanza is Parko’s nightmare

Let me start by saying I honestly feel for Joel Parkinson. You have to. This was supposed to be his year. And it was his dream year right up until it became his nightmare. Though Mick Fanning surfed every bit as well, Parko was ultimately defeated more by a fluke ankle injury and than his buddy. His collapse began at Trestles, just days after the injury and ended in Europe. By the time Parkinson got his mojo back in Hawaii, Fanning had already given him no margin for error. 

On the other hand, quietly worrying about being able to afford the bonuses of two world champions at the same time is a good problem for Rip Curl to have. Even during a recession. Between Fanning’s exploits and the third consecutive title of Stephanie Gilmore the marketing opportunities keep on coming.

Gilmore is creating something special with her championship run. She’s the first surfer to win three world titles in the first three years on the World Tour. As she’s become more steady and dominant over the women’s World Tour, she’s put her own personal trademark on it, the way Lisa Andersen and Layne Beachley did before her. This is the Gilmore era for however long it lasts. Barely out of her teens, the tall Aussie with a big smile and lethal combination of power and grace is setting the new standard for women’s surfing. 

The Kelly Tour threat pushes the ASP to action

Griping about the ASP has been the second occupation of pro surfers for as long as the ASP has been in existence. So when Kelly Slater does it, like he did in the February issue of ESPN magazine, it’s raised to a new level. By July, a whole new rival tour was proposed by Slater, his manager Terry Hardy and former boxing promoter Matt Tinley, and a summer of discontent, tension and confusion was off and running.

It was just the kind of turmoil and threat the ASP needed, turns out. The shiny Champions Surf Tour idea was enough to push surfers, ASP officials and the brands to get together on the most significant changes in the World Tour in decades. The changes included a single “unified” tour, increased prize money, and health insurance.

Though the new deal at ASP effectively killed the so-called “Kelly Tour,” rumors keep it alive. Last week, GoldCoast.com.au reported Taj Burrow, Andy Irons, Jordy Smith and Dane Reynolds have all threatened to sue Hardy and/or Tinley for continuing to link them to the CST.

Team USA wins gold and the world meets Courtney Conlogue

A new coach drops in at the last minute and look what happens. The USA Surf Team won its first gold medal at the ISA World Surfing Games in 13 years.

 The new coach was really an old hand at competition, Ian Cairns. A former pro, transplanted Australian and founder of the ASP, Cairns worked his way back from exile by coaching individuals and just two weeks earlier his students Courtney Conlogue and Brett Simpson won the U.S. Open of Surfing. Conlogue continued her incredible summer and marked her arrival in the sport with a women’s gold medal at the games.

Best U.S. Open ever 

Speaking of the U.S. Open, for those of you who missed it, it was just the best one yet. It was surfing history. The strongest field of surfers, great waves, a pair of locals win the contest for the first time and took home the biggest prize money in contest history, plus it was all presented in classic style by Hurley and IMG. 

Greg Long wins the Eddie

 American big wave surfing got a shot in the arm when San Clemente’s Greg Long beat Kelly Slater at Waimea Bay to win the Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. He’s the first surfer to win both the Eddie and Mavericks. Also the first surfer to get perfect rides in both. Long’s victory – in just the eighth running of the contest in 25 years – along with the eventual invite list smoothed over controversy surrounding Quiksilver’s decision to partially open up the invite process to a public online vote.

Odds and ends and goodbyes

Cairns comeback heads the list of odds and ends items worth mentioning this year. It was the kind of vindication rarely seen or opportunity rarely given in professional surfing.

The other big little story was board experimentation, it seems every pro was fooling around with something in their quiver. Slater courted a quad, Burrow and others  played with Firewire and Reynolds rode a Dumpster Diver to the finals at Trestles. Well, OK, some of it started before ’09, but it’s probably the healthiest thing the sport could wish for because it will only lead to more explosive and innovative surfing. 

A quartet of Orange County kids made the World Tour and hold out the promise of a return to greatness for California surfing. If you don’t know Patrick and Tanner Gudauskas, Nathan Yeomans and Brett Simpson yet, you soon will. And though it was Californians reaching the World Tour in December, it was the Australians who swept the world titles, the men’s and women’s Triple Crowns and the World Qualifying Series. We gotta fix that. 

Finally, a lot of us said goodbye to our friend Dick Baker this year. Though he was the businessman who helped Ocean Pacific and the surf industry reach new heights, most of us will remember him as an extremely bright and decent guy who you could always reach and always talk to. He signed a teenaged Greg Long to a contract at OP and gushed to me when Long won his first Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Award that “This is what you sign a young athlete for.” Though OP was eventually bought out and the surf team disbanded, Baker remained Long’s biggest fan. To see Long reach the summit of big wave surfing at Waimea Bay would have made Baker proud as a papa. He understood business was about money, but knew life was about people. His friends will miss him.

Photos A.J. Neste/Surfing America