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You’d think the most popular surf competition on Kauai would be some cutthroat ordeal with all these furrow-browed rippers rolling up. What, with two islanders on the men’s 2009 ASP (Dustin Barca and Roy Powers) and one on the woman’s (Alana Blanchard) it’d only make sense. And then there’s the little detail that the island’s biggest contest is run by the Irons Brothers. Now you’ve got a reason to be worried about things boiling over with the competitive spirit. Maybe frisk the surfers before each heat. Get some burly Polynesians with machetes to handle security.
But at the Irons Brothers 8th Annual Pine Trees Classic on Saturday the vibe was eerily carefree and festive, even for a kid’s 12 and under surf contest.
“It’s because these kids will get prizes no matter what,” said Bruce. “We’re loading every competitor with shit loads of prizes and it’s free to enter.”
“Shit loads,” was approximately $500 worth of shwag for all the 124 kids who were lucky enough to sign up before the roster filled. Dakine backpacks, Nixon watches, Von Zipper shades, towels, hats, shirts—the kids who were cut after round one heats were only too happy to wring out their comp-jersey’s, claim their a sultan’s stash worth of booty. It didn’t matter that the day wasn’t picture perfect, that a late-season storm front was whipping around tents or that the surf was closed out and small.
“I’m rich, RICH!” manically laughed one kid in an oversized hat and sunglasses, lips stained red from Hawaiian shaved ice.
“We gave away between $50 to $80 thousand dollars worth of stuff,” estimated Andy.
And that’s not including the free grub provided by Tamba Surf Co…although injecting around 400 kids with sugar crusted malasadas (deep-fried dough) and hot chocolate was probably a treat most of the parents could have done without.
“Uncle” Nelson Togioka, who was a surf mentor to the Irons Brothers since they were waist-high menehunes likened the event to inner city basket ball:
“You have you’re NSSA contests and whatnot here, but this is something that gets the whole community pumped, doesn’t matter if your sponsored or not.”
Andy said he and his brother were sitting in the Pine Trees parking lot when they decided to put the event on.
“Dorian had an event for the kids going on the Big Island, and we had talked about hosting one here for a while,” said Andy.
This was during his third year of the ‘00 world tour.
“Just wanted to give back to the sport that’s given to us.”
Andy dropped on a knee to scrawl his name on the board of one of the kids who competed in the day’s event. The board is one of 10 new J.S.s they Irons bros just handed out to kids of their choice at the awards ceremony.
“I told you sticking around till the end would be worth it,” Andy said.
“This is sick,” said the kid. “I, uh, yeah. Thanks.”
“Well you weren’t like one of the millions of other little kids that swamped me when I first pulled up. They all wanted something but you were really cool about it? You know? Like you didn’t want anything to me, which is why we gave you this.”
The kid nodded, soaking in the words.
“Hey,” Andy said. “You bring a can of food for the food drive?”
“See,” he said. “That’s how it works. The more you give the more you get back.”
Andy Irons would like to thank the following sponsors: Billabong, Billabong Surfboards, Von Zipper, Dakine and Nixon Watches.
Bruce Irons would like to thank the following sponsors: Volcom, Oakley Eyewear, Dakine, JS Surfboards, Red Bull Energy Drink, DC Shoes and Nixon Watches.