Billabong Pro’s three strangest moments (PART 1) – The Andy photog incident….

At world tour events water photographers need permission to shoot. Only one photographer is allowed in the water at any one time. So precious are the ASP (and event organises) in their desire to offer the surfers a clear distraction free run there’s also a limit as to how close these officially appointed lens men (and women) can get to the line up. When on day 3 of the Billabong Pro Jeffery’s Bay Andy Irons paddled out for his round four heat against local giant killer Sean Holmes however no one had noticed that a second (uninvited) frogman had swam into the line up camera in hand.

With less than five minutes on the clock Andy needed a score – he was in touch but slipping. As he set himself up for a second bottom turn (on what could’ve been his comeback wave) the unidentified photographer swam threw the wave face in an effort to get clear – kicking his flippers in the process. No big deal had he been down the line but the offending flipper splashed right near Andy’s head as he passed. Andy’s score was announced and it wasn’t enough to improve his position.

Although now some 80 meters back up towards Supertubes and the main take off area, Andy suddenly sat up, turned, and began feverishly paddling back towards the hapless photographer. “Oh, oh… Andy’s pissed”, portrait photographer Steve Sherman said, to anyone in earshot. A nervous excitement buzzed through the crowd, sure the surfing had been world class, but everyone loves a little drama too. But how far would Andy go?

He had a full head of steam up when he finally reached the offender only braking to sit up once he was almost on top of the poor sod. Andy menaced over the bobbing head, giving him an earful, he even appeared to be pushing his board underwater in the photographers direction – was he connecting or touching him physically in any way? We couldn’t be sure.

The only official water photographer in the water at the time was an Australian named Kendall O’Brien who works exclusively for Billabong. Kendall took it upon himself to drift towards the heated situation to, “watch Andy doesn’t lose it”, he told Tracks later. He also told us that pleads of, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”, were spewing out of the guilty parties mouth. Andy’s angry response being along the lines of it being too late for apologies as the incident may have cost him 50 grand.

Andy Iron’s comeback from burnout and a year off has been somewhat slow, but in the last few months’ improvements in his surfing (and his results) have re-lit the competitive fire in his belly. That’s great news for surfing. A world title race without Andy Irons just isn’t the same. While he has dealt with his losses with grace of late having an outside factor hinder his performance certainly cracked his new calmer demeanour. Luckily for the guy all he got was a severe dressing down and a fright. It was quickly attained that the guy was a local who had simply decided he wanted to get some shots and had swam straight into the line-up. Later that day Andy was happily signing autographs alongside Occy and Taj Burrow and looked well over it.