We say adios to two great humans.
Another week is in the books. Fiji is officially on, which means we’re just about halfway through another full season on tour. The first time the dream tour’s been known as the WSL, I might add. And for every bit of excitement buzzing through the surf world there were some sad highlights as well. A legend announced he’s taking off his contest jersey for good, while we learned the sad truth about why another legend left us. Here’s a look back on another collection of days spent making and catching waves…
Video of the Week: Do yourself a favor and watch this one. It’s about saying good bye to a best friend and there’s nothing I can say or write or share that will be as perfect as what Ben Moon produced. It’s simple, when someone you love walks through the door, even if it happens five times a day you should go totally insane with joy. You’re welcome to start crying now.
From The Tour: Did you hear the news? CJ is hanging ’em up. The Fiji Pro say idly through 5 lay days this week before finally kicking off, and no matter who wins when it’s all settled, the 2001 ASP Champ nabbed the headlines by the end of round 1 when he announced 2015 is his last go ’round. He’s been himming and hawing about retirement for a while, but now that he’s made the choice he’s wearing Kelly’s #11 jersey as a tribute. Apparently the story is Slater made a joke about retiring during Bells. CJ told Slater, “Hey I really am retiring, can I wear you’re jersey?” Here’s a guy who won a world title, but probably never got to enjoy it thanks to that asterisk the surf world hangs next to his name. He was Andy Irons’ foe in the finals the last time we saw AI win a ‘CT event, the 2010 Billabong Pro Tahiti. And more impressively he strung together 17 years on the tour. Whether you buy into the asterisk or not, that’s a legend.
What’s Blowing My Mind: As if saying good bye to Barney was too early wasn’t sad enough , the autopsy results from last month’s death gave the surf world another reality check. What’s blowing my mind isn’t as much the reality of Barron’s methamphetamine use, rather the conversations we continue to avoid around this topic. We choose to stick with the good memories of people like Barney first, as we should. Shawn Barron was a lot of things, a lot of great things, that define him before being a drug user. But for some reason the surf world cringes at confronting the sad truth about situations like this. It somehow becomes taboo to unveil the “dark side” like it takes away from the inspiration they gave us. Personally, Barney was one of the very few people I hoped to run into every session at Steamer Lane, which is to say there aren’t many people you ever hope to see when it comes to surfing on Westcliff Drive. But Barney was different and I’ll remember him for that without ignoring the truth about why he passed way too early. He was one hell of a surfer and it goes without saying,it sucks losing another one this way.
