Without Andy Irons, pro surfing’s nine-time world champ, Kelly Slater would not be such a legend. But then, Andy Irons is a legend of his own with three world titles in the Association of Surfing Professionals.

Andy Irons won a string of three world crowns in 2002, 2003 and 2004. For the final pair, Irons bested the come-back king Kelly Slater. Since 2005, Slater has regained dominance, but Irons has remained to nip at his heels.

Their rivalry is similar to the historic Bill Russell versus Wilt Chamberlain in basketball or Jack Nicklaus versus Arnold Palmer in golf. When Surf Magazine rated pro surfing’s all-time rivalries, Andy Irons versus Kelly Slater earned the top spot, even ahead of East Coast versus West Coast and U.S.A. versus Australia.

Andy Irons, at the age of 30, already has gained a place in the Surfing Hall of Fame.

Andy Irons is bigger than the average surfer and in competition sometimes displays a competitive football spirit that caused one analyst to remark, “You might think he’s an intense frothing madman.” However, his fellow pro surfers say he’s really a friendly and fun guy. Andy Irons is even making peace with Kelly Slater after all these years, according to reports.

The size of Andy Irons should not belie his finesse . He grew up on the shores of Kauai, where waves are not always at their peaks. Therefore, he learned to rip and scoot on the two-footers, as well as showcasing on the 12-footers.

Andy Irons is the first to admit that he sold himself short early in his pro career, as a young adult, with too much partying. He was in his early 20s before he finally came into his own.

Big, “frothing” Andy Irons is actually a gentle do-gooder. He joins his surfing brother Bruce Irons each year to throw a free surfing contest for the kids on Kauai called the Irons Brothers Pinetrees Classic.

Still, entering 2009, Andy Irons would like nothing better than to achieve another takedown of Kelly Slater.

Sources:
http://www.redbullsurfing.com/riders/andy-irons/
http://www.lat34.com/surf/andy_irons.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Irons
http://www.worldprosurfers.com/andy-irons/index.htm
http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/rideshop/2009/01/09/surfer-of-the-week-kelly-slater

Persistence paid off for surfboarder Nathaniel Curran, 24, who will join the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour during 2009.

The ASP annually operates the World Qualifying Series, with the top 15 qualifying to join pro surfing’s Dream Tour during the following season. This is similar to minor league baseball or golf’s Nationwide Tour. Nathaniel Curran is the top qualifier, running up one of the most consistent seasons in the history of the ASP’s World Qualifying Series.

Nathaniel Curran faced added pressure, to measure up to accomplishments of two older siblings. Tim Curran, now retired, was among the top performers on pro surfing’s Dream Tour, best known for performing a full flip in two-foot surf in 2005, who is now a successful musician. Josh Curran has made some sensational surfing videos, although he is better known for ranking among world leaders in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques.

“Both of my brothers, Josh and Tim, have been a big help, from helping picking contests to videotaping my heats online,” Nathaniel Curran says. “They helped me see how bad I was blowing it in heats.”

The Currans hail from Oxnard in California’s Ventura Beach area. Nathaniel Curran started surfing when he was 5 years old, and turned pro when he was 18. Injuries contributed to his slow development to qualify for the ASP’s World Tour. He says he feels “revenge” in overcoming those injuries.

It was a matter of “determination, staying focused and trying to make enough money to keep my house,” Curran says.

His success has been hard won.

“I can’t wait for all of them,” Curran said, referring to events on the ASP’s World Tour for 2008. “Surfing at the best spots in the world … I really just can’t wait for the first comp.”

Surfers who qualified behind Curran are Chris Davidson of Australia, Michel Bourez of French Polynesia, Gabe Kling of the United States, Jihan Khodr of Brazil, David Weare of South Africa, Josh Kerr of Australia, Nic Muscroft of Australia, Kekoa Bacolso of the United States, Greg Emslie of South Africa, Tim Boal of France, Dustin Barca of the United States, Tiago Pires of Portugal, Phillip MacDonald of Australia and Drew Courtney of Australia.

Sources:
http://www-pulse/catching-up-with-nathaniel-curran-interview-101408/
http://surfactants-up-with-future-asp-world-tour-rookie-nathaniel-curran/
http://ones-curran/
http://denitrified

Pro surfer Bobby Martinez, 26, has sort of double life in Santa Barbara. He comes from a neighborhood that he describes as “100-percent Mexican,” with many peers who don’t see much of a future, much less a chance to take the time to see the nearby ocean. But Bobby Martinez has always seen the water, which is why he is one of the best pro surfers in the world.

“I think that where I come from definitely helps keep me humble,” Martinez says.

Pro surfers, by and large, are good people with open minds. Still, there is not a whole lot of ethnicity in pro surfing. While Bobby Martinez was taking to the water on a boogie board, his Mexican-American peers were not doing the same. In that part of his life along Santa Barbara’s Pacific Ocean shoreline, Martinez was a loner. He would hang out with his friends in his neighborhood. Then, when he went to the surf, he would encounter mostly white or Hawaiian kids.

Bobby Martinez is sometimes portrayed as a “gangsta” in the pro surfing world.

“Maybe it’s because I’m Mexican, and I’ve got tattoos, and I listen to hip-hop,” he says. “I don’t know. I just trip out on it.”

Born in 1982, Bobby Martinez was a hot pro surfing prospect at the turn of the millennium. Still, he did not truly emerge until the past three years.

Bobby Martinez says he started taking surfing seriously in 2003, when he was 21, but he still needed a couple years of hard practice before he emerged in the pro surfing tour.

Martinez got married a year ago to Cleo Neuman from the Australian Gold Coast. They have a new house in Santa Barbara that’s one block from the beach.

“That’s the best thing,” Bobby Martinez told a reporter. “I have dreams in terms of surfing, but more than that, I’ve got dreams as a person. I’ve always wanted to own a home, and now I can do that because of surfing, and I realize that it’s a gift.”

Sources:
http://surfermag.com/magazine/archivedissues/almost-not-famous-july-2007...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Martinez

Surfer videos often feature the pros making heart-stopping rides on tremendous waves, but there’s more to “Sofia: A Documentary.”

This video is the life story of Sofia Mulanovich of Peru, who took an unlikely path to top rankings on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World Tour.

Sofia, 25, is a child of Croatian ancestry who grew up in Lima, Peru. In terms of economics, her family was more fortunate than most, but that’s not saying much in a nation as poor as Peru.

Sofia Mulanovich grew up along the South Pacific Ocean and took to the water almost immediately, learning to swim at the age of three. She was so little that she began riding waves on a Morey Boogie Bodyboard before advancing to a surfboard, but by her mid-teen years she had advanced to world competitions as a young phenomenon.

These childhood events are captured on “Sofia: A Documentary.” Most biographies of athletes focus only a tiny amount of time on childhood, but for Sofia Mulanovich, that’s the heart of the story.

Sofia’s childhood was a time of horrific political upheaval in Peru. While terrorists fought in the city, she would escape to the beach. Others would do the same, but Sofia took her surfing seriously. Therefore, she ranks as the best competitive surfer ever to come out of South America, male or female. She is a national hero in Peru, where citizens are looking for role models after so many years of political corruption.

Sofia Mulanovich lacked confidence in her surfing, as shown on “Sofia: A Documentary.” She figured that she could not be as good as the established surfers from Australia and the United States. Instead, Sophia Mulanovich proved she was the best in 2004 when she won the ASP Women’s World Title. She captured second place in 2005, fifth place in 2006 and second place again a year ago. This year, Sofia is in second place behind Stephanie Gilmore of Australia with two ASP events remaining.

“Sofia: A Documentary” also is a winner, with a first place victory in the 2006 Surfer Poll Awards, and beyond the surfing world, the film took first place at the prestigious Newport Beach Film Festival. It’s an hour-long flick in Spanish with some English. To learn more, see sofiadoco.com

Already, Sofia Mulanovich is in the Association of Surfing Professionals Hall of Fame. She’s a Cinderella story, but she goes far beyond ballroom dancing. Sofia Mulanovich rocks on her surfboard!

Sources:
http://sofiadoco.com
http://www.lat34.com/surf/sofia_mulanovich
http://www.surfline.com/womens/story_bamp.cfm?id=3728
www.aspworldtour.com

Pancho Sullivan of Hawaii’s North Shore is possibly the best-known pro surfer that doesn’t have any big-time trophies. He hasn’t even come close to winning one. Pancho Sullivan is a pro surfer who doesn’t like competition.

In baseball, Pancho Sullivan would be a home-run hitter who also strikes out a lot. In football, he would catch the long passes but not be good on the short routes.

Still, fans are crazy about him, and so are his fellow pro surfers. He’s known as one of the friendliest and most pleasant guys in the sport, especially among his teammates on the Rip Curl International Surf Team. Pancho Sullivan simply whistles to his own tune.

Pancho Sullivan grew up with some of the world’s biggest waves on the North Shore, and he’s a big guy at more than 200 pounds. Therefore, he doesn’t want to deal with some of the smaller tides that spill forth at various competitive venues.

“I’m turned off by the type of surfing they’re promoting, the contradiction of it,” Pancho Sullivan explained a year ago. “I don’t want to devote three or four years of my life to surf two-foot waves.”

This was after he finally broke down in 2006, trying a one-year gig on the Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour. He never finished higher than ninth, nor worse than 17th.

Pancho Sullivan is not a competitive animal when it comes to his fellow pro surfers. Instead, he prefers to stay with his family on the North Shore and compete against the biggest waves. When his pro surfing buddies come to visit each winter, his light shines the brightest. His fame has come, not from winning trophies, but from appearing in some of the most fantastic big wave photographs ever to appear in surfing magazines.

A writer for Surf Magazine provides an apt summary: “Always a big guy, Pancho struggles in small gutless waves. But in waves that required guts, he excels.”

Sources:
www.ripcurl.com/index.php?panchosullivan
www.lat34.com/surf/pancho_sullivan
www.surfline.com/surfaz/surfaz.cfm?id=912
www.worldprosurfers.com/panch-sullivan/index.htm
www.zappos.com

Surfers are known for getting along with one another a whole lot better than the athletes in those “major” sports. For the women surfers it’s like a sorority, and for the fellows it’s like a fraternity. So, it’s only fitting that professional surfers gather once to a year to commune and honor the best among themselves.

This year’s 16th annual Surfing Life Peer Polls Awards were celebrated in Australia, near the renowned Bells Beach, and the surfers may have been showing some sentiment in picking a pair of Aussies. Still, Stephanie Gilmore and Mick Fanning are both world champions who are as deserving as anyone, although Gilmore’s world crown came during 2007, while Fanning’s was this year.

Gilmore, in fact, made her Surfing Life Peer Polls Award a back-to-back shindig. Fanning, meanwhile, is the first Aussie to claim the Surfing Life top award since Luke Egan in 2000.

“I am so stoked,” proclaimed Mick Fanning in classic Down Under jargon.

Stephanie Gilmore, 20, started surfing a decade ago. She wasn’t even old enough to legally sip a brew of Foster’s — a top surfing sponsor Down Under — when she captured the Roxy Pro Gold Coast title as a 17-year-old. Seems inevitable, but yes, her nickname is “Happy.” She indeed flashes a megawatt smile, and her exciting lifestyle includes skydiving, along with playing guitar. (Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton are among her faves.)

Mick Fanning, 27, was only 5 years old when he tried his first wave, but he did not get really serious until he was 12. His family moved to Tweed Heads, site of some of Australia’s most dynamite surfing, and he became buddies with Joel Parkinson, another future surfing pro. He was a mere 16 when he finished among the top three at the Australian National Titles, and his big breakthrough came at age 19 when he won the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach.

With the nickname of “White Lightning,” Fanning overcame a complete hamstring tear in 2004 to recover his crowd-pleasing style. He is married to Karissa Dalton, a model.

Sources:

www.surfinglife.com.au

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Gilmore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Fanning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bells_Beach

Surfer and lifeguard * Eddie Aikau * lived in Hawaii for 31 years. He died 30 years ago, but his fame and legacy live on.

The Eddie Aikau Foundation honors his life with fundraisers bearing the slogan “Eddie Would Go,” which also is the title of a movie and a book about him.

This is because in 1968, Aikau became the first lifeguard hired by Honolulu authorities to work on the North Shore. With his swimming skills and powerful body, he “would go” into any conditions, even 30-foot waves, to perform rescues along the beaches. Not one life was lost during his 10 years on patrol.

But he couldn’t save his own. In 1978, he volunteered for a 2,500-mile journey to follow the ancient route of Polynesian migration between the Hawaiian and Tahitian island chains. The voyage’s canoe soon developed a leak and capsized. Aikau took to his surfboard and paddled off in search of help. The crew later was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, but Aikau was never seen again despite the largest air-sea search in Hawaii’s history.

Eddie Aikau was born in 1946, long before surfing became a professional sport. He learned on a borrowed board in Kahului Harbor off of Maui. He purchased his own board only after working as a teenager at a Dole pineapple
cannery.

During his era, surfers paddled their way into big waves. Many veterans still look down on today’s practice of a jet-ski towing a surfer into position. Several tournaments throughout the years have taken place in Aikau’s name, with towing forbidden.

“Eddie was a really warm-hearted person. He’d do anything for you,” says Barry Kanaiaupini, another star surfer of the era. “He saved so many people. I mean he didn’t have to. Shoulders and arms. That guy was like a
tugboat. Like you can tie four people to him and he’d swim them in. That’s the kind of strength he had.”

Aikau’s sister, Myra Aikau, is the foundation’s president. She says she and Eddie loved surfing so much as children, they would perform lawn and household chores in the middle of the night so that they could go to the ocean during the day.

The foundation promotes Hawaiian history and culture. Its e-mail address is info@eddieaikaufoundation.org and the mailing address is 1164 Bishop Street, Suite 124, PMB364, Honolulu, HI 96813.

Sources:
www.eddieaukaufoundation.org
en.wikipedia.org/wikie/eddie_aikau

Talk about a youth movement in women’s surfing! How about the Honda U.S. Open champion who will turn 15 in August? She’s surfer Malia Manuel of Wailua, Kauai, who defeated another Hawaiian, Coco Ho, who is all of 17. The teen revolution took place July 26 at Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, known to the world as Surf City USA.

Malia was a wild card because she had not entered enough events to be seeded, and she modestly said she was fortunate to catch a few good waves on a slow overall day. The surf averaged only 2 to 3 feet.

What will she do with the $4,500 prize?

“I think I’m going to buy some tires and rims for my Honda Civic, so when I’m 16, I can drive it.” A youth movement indeed. She also said she felt “stoked.”

She added, “I was just happy to be here. To get to surf against some of my heroes and to be in the final with my friend Coco is just something I would have never dreamed of.”

Coco also has a wavy future and said she felt “over the moon” just to make the finals. She’s the daughter of the legendary Michael Ho and the niece of former world champ Derek Ho. She took in $2,300 as women’s runner up and copped another $3,000 earlier in the day as the women’s junior winner. These days in surfing, it’s tough to tell the women from the girls.

The full, somewhat bulky competition title is “GO211 LIVE featuring the Women’s Honda U.S. Open of Surfing presented by O’Neill.” Whew! That’s a wave in itself, but sponsorship is a needed avenue to take the sport to a higher level.

Sources:
www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-surfing27-2008jul27,0,1283027/la-sp-su7.story
www.surfline.com/surfnews/surfwire/cfm?id=13420
www.freesurfmagazine.com/Volume-5-Number-3/Garden-Isle-Girl-Malia-Manuel...