Opiates ain't toys, re-evaulate what it means to be "bad-ass" and love doesn't conquer all…
Earlier today, the trailer for the Andy Irons documentary Kissed by God was loosed ahead of its May 2 world premiere.
It is a cautionary tale of a life lived as a banquet but found bitter.
“A film about bipolar disorder and opioid addiction etc.”
I remember, vividly, the Wednesday morning when Taj Burrow fired a text message from Puerto Rico to a mutual friend saying that Andy Irons had been found in a Texas hotel room. A few calls and I was into the Tarrant County coroner’s office. AI’s body was inside. He’d been found by two hotel workers at the Grand Hyatt at Dallas-Forth Worth airport, dead, bed sheets pulled to his neck, an empty Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup on the floor beside him.
Andy Irons, who was thirty two, had died six thousand clicks from a wife pregnant with his son Axel and a home gilded by the rays of a Hanalei sun.
Andy brought light but he also summoned the executioner. And there are five things we should learn from his death.
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- It’s okay to tell your heroes “No”: If you’ve ever hung around a famous athlete, surfer, baller, whatever, you’ll know the dynamic. It’s a sea of sycophancy. Prior to landing in Dallas, Andy had been in Miami trying to score…well… it wasn’t weed. That happened all around the world. He didn’t have to try real hard to get high. Everyone’s your friend at midnight. A few years ago, I was shocked when a shaper pal worded up a noted pro surfer who’d done something stupid with the line, “Everyone here is so intent on sucking your ass they won’t say a damn thing. Well, I will.” Andy needed a few men like that.
- Opiates ain’t a toy: Back in 2010, we were all still under the impression that it was okay to throw a few Oxy’s down our necks. Government approved. Made in commercial factories. So clean and safe and… ooowee, that numb feeling. What we didn’t get was it was this was a roundabout way of chasing the dragon except it came in a neat little pill. More than two million Americans are now hooked on legal opiates. The result? Drug overdoses killed more people in the US last year than in the entire Vietnam War.
- Love doesn’t conquer all: Andy had a wife he loved, a house on his favourite beach and a kid about to be born. And, still, he needed to get high.
- Nihilism is lame: Andy told me, “I’m not going to worry about tomorrow, because you don’t even know what’s going to happen right now.” If you live like there’s no tomorrow, one day you’re gonna be right.
- Re-evaulate what it means to be radical and bad-ass: Andy’s best friend was Cory Lopez. A few years ago, I called him to talk about his old pal. “Life and death is such a fine edge we ride. Andy wouldn’t have been who he was if he didn’t do what he did. That’s why we loved him so much, because he was so extreme. We lived vicariously through his radical and wild life.” Is being radical, a “bad-ass” worth dying for?
Get Andy talking about surfing and he’d light up like a damn Christmas tree.
“Surfing’s the only thing that’s always been there day in, day out, fucken girlfriend breakups, fucken report card fails, surfing always makes you feel better. No matter what, when I’m in the water, even if I don’t catch a wave and just swim in the ocean, I always come out a better person.”
What if Andy had found a way of kicking the pills?
What if he was happily retired, surfing with his little boy in front of the Hanelei bomber, Lyndie maybe ready to burst with another kid?
Wouldn’t that have been radical too?
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I trust Derek was aware of AI’s struggles well before A.I. passed away but didn’t write about it. I think most surfers are in denial that AI was a Bipolar that a could surf better than them. Such is the mental illness of hero worship. A.I. was just a surfer. Being a surfer does’t make a person special. If we try to name the best 50 surfers of all time, which one’s didn’t have a drug habit or psyche issue? Midget, Shaun, MR, Kelly, JJF?
Sorry to hear. After abdominal surgery last year I was paranoid about the Oxy’s so I took as few as possible. I stopped taking them when the first one made me woozy. It was a little too comfortable a feeling.
Sorry to hear that brother. I lost two friends in the past 3 weeks to overdosing. It’s a shame, really.
Let’s kill ourselves then! So radical. So cool.
This film looks relevant, timely and cogent why isn’t this in the Tribeca film festival-just wondering???
Count was a drug fuck.
Well that totally fucking sucks. Sorry for your loss Matty
“Wouldn’t that have been radical too?”
Nup, it would have been totally normal. Which can actually seem quite unbearable.
“A study of the Great Malady; horror of home.”
well said, derek.
as to this other conversation: Labels, from “addiction” and “disease” to “recreational” are almost never useful. here’s what we do know about prescription drug use.
no matter how many times a person might use them, combining powerful pharmaceuticals with other substances like alcohol is always, every time, a roll of the dice. one simply doesn’t know how these chemicals will interact with each other inside the body/brain. so whether you think your drug use is in control, the next time you go mixing stuff with industrial-strength painkillers you might be unlucky.
as for the surf media, remember how everyone got their panties in a twist when brad melekian finally wrote an honest story for Outside? and how long it took anyone inside surf to ignore the ridiculous billabong “dengue fever” spin?
I was trying and failing to remember Brad’s name. I’d be interested to hear his view on this whole documentary thing.
That was one of the few “journalistic” moments in surfing that I can remember. Melenian got it done.
The Dengue fever bullshit came for the surfing entourage around Andy , the fact that they let him travel alone and there wasn’t a minder with him was the real……….ahhhh
How could anyone think that Oxycontin wasn’t pure smack is beyond me…
damn that was a lot of good writing in a small space, dude
It is good that the truth is coming out finally, surfing has bad problem with glorifying people only because they surf good.
certainly not a problem exclusive to surfing.
I think that’s same with all “famous” people.
“what if”is the greatest waste of time known to man
I’m just here to say, anybody got any Vicodin?
bottles, doc asked me how much more I needed. Jokingly told them you go through it pretty easily when you crush them. Wish you could have seen the look on his face.
Will this film unveil Billabong’s true part in Andy’s fall? Like providing a handler who also was a supplier to the addicted hero?
Dereck, do you think surf media would tell the truth if such drama was to happen again with an other pro surfer or do we only get the truth ’cause Andy’s long gone?
Derek still can’t tell the truth about Andy. Why else would have have said Andy was trying score “….well, not weed” instead of just saying heroin? Even today, they’re all trying to protect him.
To be fair, his title is unequivocal. I haven’t seen any other surf media flat out call it an OD.
I guess…
The autopsy said he died of a heart attack due to hardening of the arteries. Drugs being a secondary cause since they slowed down a weak heart. It was not a massive overdose that killed him. He had only taken a few pills and tried to get some sleep. He had and uncle that died at 43 of a heart attack, so its partly genetic. He was diagnosed at 18 with bipolar, but was in denial and tried to self medicate. Beachgrit is banned from Hawaii for being so disrespectful. They never even posted a link to any Kauai charities in their article about someone exploiting the tragedy. Are they any different? They have an axe to grind and do it slickly.
How very dare you! Have you not seen Chas’ “Defend Hawaii” shirt?
And is this a ban you have just imposed, Bob? Should they consider this the formal notification?
ah now we know why Rory left , ha, how is Stab seen in Kauai ?
surf media in general is seen as a pariah
Man, I hope that was a not funny joke.
You’d better have word to Customs, as I think they missed “BeachGrit is banned from Hawaii” memo…
I was hoping to cover the final Pipe Masters in Memory of the WSL”s Permit Person for The Grit in December. Guess I’ll just have to hang out on the beach instead and eat Ted’s chocolate haupia pies.
He was a junkie. His pal Cory was the same. Parko’s also got huge issues. Benjamin Sanchis as well. Do you want me to go on? I will nevertheless. Most of the Top 34 smoke weed by the truck load. A significant part indulge on cocaine regularly, a few of them way too much. And after all that is eradicated, they are going to move on to performance enhancing drugs. Maybe I have my genius idea now: after all the recreational stuff is banned via Olympics, market Surfing as a drug free sport and police it. Maybe then Surfing will become a sport for the masses. A viewing one, hopefully. All of you cunts stay out of the water!
Kelly was the Lance Armstrong of surfing.
How many people miraculously turned up for the Hawaiian leg bulked up?
how many won 11 titles ?
Wouldn’t it be the other way around? He didn’t fear death so he did drugs
…is one of my favourite quotes of all time!
Unfortunately, not everyone can do things in moderation.
Most Americans
Why is this an American thing? There are plenty of people impacted by this in Australia, England, Central America, wherever. Perhaps it gets more press in the US but suggesting this is a uniquely American thing is just wrong.
but just like most things in the states there is a making mountain out of a molehill
Eh. When your friends are suffering the molehill is relative.
Most American I’ve met can’t even talk in moderation never mind having a drink.
I can hear Americans whispering from across a lake.
Moderation with drug use (including booze) is important like with most things. Just because its legal it doesnt mean its any better for you. Surfing on the other hand – this does not need to be done in moderation.
Something I’ve always wondered…are Americans uniquely prone to drug and alcohol “problems”? Seems to me they start chucking around terms like “addiction” and “therapy” after a bad hangover or even a whiff of chemical assistance. Seems to me the labels could exacerbate the issues.
The majority of my friends growing up used drugs on the regular, all sorts of drugs. And we all abuse(d) booze. I don’t know a single one who has succumbed to any sort of problem. Things were often excessive and often messy, but at the end of the day it was all healthy, recreational use.
There are drug problems in my country, sure, but they’re mainly reserved for the really depraved. The majority just seem to shoulder the load and get on with it. I can’t help feeling like attitudes are all wrong in some other parts of the world.
Maybe people are just searching for identity, but I think some cultures abuse labels more than drugs.
“At the end of the day it was all ‘healthy’ recreational use”. This has to be one of the dumbest, inane, most uninformed comments ever made, on Beachgrit or anywhere.
Agree. Like when they say there were just a few “party drugs”.
Alcohol causes even more deaths, but we always say there were some drugs and alcohol at the party.
Bit like saying there were bananas and fruit in the basket.
Any of them in excess never ends well.
Yeah? That sounds like the response of someone who has no experience, self control, or understanding of balance.
I don’t use words lightly. The experiences were abundantly healthy in that they enriched our friendships, bonds and experience. I wouldn’t claim that it wasn’t to the detriment of our physical health, sometimes, but it was still healthy.
“Things were often excessive and messy”. Yes, that always seems to be the case until someone accidentally ODs. Maybe some of your friends were just lucky, some of mine weren’t so lucky. Drugs and alcohol never help anybody cope with anything.
I’m sorry that you’ve lost friends, but you can’t condemn my experience or opinion because it differs wildly from yours. None of my peers used drugs or alcohol as coping mechanisms, we used them because we enjoyed them. It’s like saying no one should use guns or cars because they are lethal in the hands of some people. They’re also useful and in some respects vital. Are you going to ban driving? Judge each user on his or her merit.
And without doing things to excess or getting in a mess how do you ever know where the limits are? My point is that some people (from my experience many Americans) have such a fucked up attitude to drugs that it ends up causing more harm than good. A more liberal and less fascist approach to vices is often a healthier one.
“We used them because we enjoyed them”. Yup, always seems to start out that way, until you wake up one morning and, oh man, I need a drink or a pill, (to help me start my day) and you didn’t even realize you fell in a trap. Seems like your condoning this type of thing.
I give up.
as you should, you’ve interjected a bias into your argument that makes it just as weak as twinfin’s
You’ll never win against Freerider/Twinfin/Kelp/Tony Carson Big Island, Chazz.
Thanks, I’ve not come across him or her before. Must be a Stabber.
used to see him at Inertia all the time as Freerider, but he seems to have disappeared.
Nah, that’s not Freerider. His grammar is passable.
yeah, he seems to have “stopped” with the — hyphens…. and the dot dot dots…. peace
Not even Bjorn Borg could beat a wall.
P.S: I’m sorry, Bobby!
Actually the original Hippy drug takers were not looking for enjoyment but enlightment /altered states , to enhance spirituality and challenge the status quo in the 60’s and 70’s, of course it all went wrong , Hippies became yuppies , then the disco 80’s , sex drugs rock n roll became the norm , so as usual something good was taken to extremes and left a dark side of addiction/death and self gratification , don’t blame the drugs !
My peers used drugs to make lots of money and party with hookers and find a way to go to jail, your peers probably went to raves and spun glow sticks whilst dancing shirtless with each other.
In that case I apologise for not being as straight up gangsta as you and your mates.
I was the more like you type but to say you had not one of your friends show some signs of problems from excess is a little suspect or wankerish. It’s a big world with too many experiences and cultural diversities to make yours the right or twinfin’s. Doesn’t take education to have or not have drug or alcohol problems. And inherited genetics and will power aren’t part of a curriculum that I am aware of
Driving is a coping mechanism…everything one does is a coping mechanism in some form or another…drugs kill some and not others…its pretty random—neither good nor bad per se…guns, drugs…don’t kill people…choices kill people…
You’re an intelligent guy, but not as smart as you may think. You use fallacies in arguments that don’t hold water. I’ve studied psychology and worked as a mental health counselor with addicts and you sound a lot like the incarcerated addicts I worked with… just more articulate. Hubris could be your undoing.
Fascinating! Should I expect an invoice?
But if we’re talking fallacy I’m absolving myself of all responsibility! You see the rain set in early tonight, and the sullen wind was soon awake. It even tore the elm tops down for spite and did its worst to vex the lake!
Fuck all to do with me, mate.
“I wouldn’t claim that it wasn’t to the detriment of our physical health, sometimes, but it was still healthy.”
Sounds paradoxical to me.
I think he is saying physical health is only one component of a balanced life, and a little abandon here and there can improve the other aspects…which he also kindly listed for you above.
You haven’t been reading my comments lately have ya
thats American therapy culture.
Everyone is sick, more money to be made.
Recreational use maybe, but healthy?
I can’t buy the “healthy use” of drugs.
Drugs aren’t healthy.
And the fact you and your friends didn’t die won’t be enough.
Especially on young people, drugs have their effects, lack of concentration, effects on social relationships, failure in their studies…
It’s more or less the same for me: none of my close friends died from drug use, but most of them didn’t succeed in their life as much as they would have been able to do, and one day or another, they regretted it.
I did drugs, but not as much as others. I was lucky to have people around me to calm me down, to restrain me, to show me how to party and work, and that excesses had to be avoided at all costs.
There is no “healthy” drugs. And excess of drugs kills.
See reply to twinfin below…
Spot on
Chaz just doesn’t seem to get it.
Just give up the real hard shit around 35 and you’ll be sweet.
Sound like your mates were a bunch of pussies if you don’t know one “who has succumbed to any sort of problem”
Or maybe they’re all just lucky enough to live in an educated culture.
don’t take a education to stereotype or live with political blinders
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You have a tendency of sounding like an entitled prick in of your writing/comments. I think you are a great writer, I just wonder where the bitterness comes from? Nothing wrong with honest cynicism, yet your passive shit talking detracts from your voice.
Neal! How nice of you to critique!
What can I say, Neal, I’m not bitter, I just have an aversion to bland. It’s a personal failing.
No worries Jaime, just offering some constructive criticism. Perhaps this derision was magnified by my read of your Inertia, “kickflip” diatribe yesterday. A superiority complex was on display as you bashed Zoltan and his surfing in your piece and doubled down after some hecklers pointed it out. Look, I’m not Zoltan’s biggest fan either. He gets heckled here in SC quite regularly. Instead of a satire or spoof, you posit that, since kickflips aren’t functional, Torkos’ attempts are harming the sport. If it was a generational thing I’d have to agree, but since it’s one dude, however delusional, your disdain seemed a bit cruel and pointed. I’m glad you’re not bitter my apologies for assuming.
You and your mates must be very happy and lucky to be British!
Onya, Jimbo! You slither out from your hole and get a wee dig in!
Nice of you to nail your (tri)colours to the mast.
Haha, that is one bait a Celtic blooded male will always rise to!
“Culture “ and Australia do not belong together in the same sentence, or paragraph
Dunno Chazzy, given the stats on alcoholism both in the UK and Australia, I think it’s possible the problem exists beyond US shores.
Of course it exists, we just have the good grace to shut up and get on with it!
very decent of you.
A fat lot of good that does in NZ and AUS.
Nick’s written a book on drug abuse. He is an outlier in Australian culture.
Chazz I know what you mean, me & my friends went down the usual booze/drugs path & for most of us it was just a enjoyable lark, however for some it just took over their lives, something in their psycho/dna makeup dragged them down that lefthand path. To me it’s Russian roulette, put a cartridge in the cylinder spin it, put it to your head & pull the trigger, maybe you’ll be okay, maybe it’ll blow your brains out!
That’s the dycatomy, why can some recreationally use and some, well, can’t. It has nothing to do with being American, just being human.