Surfing Champion Andy Irons Dies at Age 32 After Withdrawing From Event
Three-Time World Surfing Champion Andy Irons Dies Age 32
Cory Scott/Getty Images
World Surf champion Andy Irons from Hawaii.
World Surf champion Andy Irons from Hawaii. Photographer: Cory Scott/Getty Images
Andy Irons, a three-time world surfing champion who won at every location on the elite men’s professional circuit, died from an illness on his way home from an event. He was 32.
Irons passed away during a layover en route to Kauai, Hawaii, after withdrawing from a competition in Puerto Rico, the Association of Surfing Professionals said yesterday. He was said to have been battling dengue fever, the association added.
Irons, who began his professional career in 1998, won three straight world titles from 2002 to 2004 and is the only surfer to win at every location on the elite tour, where he collected 20 victories. He last competed in September in Tahiti. He earned $104,000 from events this year, giving him a career total of $1.49 million, the ASP said.
“Andy was one of the greatest surfers of our time,” Billabong International Ltd., the surfwear maker that sponsored Irons, said in a tribute on its website. “More than that, he was a much loved son, a devoted husband and a soon-to-be father.”
Irons’s pregnant wife, Lyndie, is due to give birth to the couple’s first child next month.
The surfer was found in a hotel room at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.
Mark Occhilupo, the 1999 world surfing champion, said that Irons had struggled with dengue fever since first contracting the viral disease in Bali, Indonesia.
“When he gets run down it comes back,” Occhilupo said in a televised interview with Australia’s Fox Sports News. “Somehow he tried to get home and he didn’t make it. Words can’t explain it. He was such a vibrant and lovely person to be around.”
Irons was ranked 16th this year by the ASP.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Baynes in Sydney at dbaynes@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.
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