Andy Irons Toxicology Report Made Public

Irons was found dead on Nov. 2, 2010, in a Dallas airport hotel room, but the release of his autopsy results has been delayed twice in the past few months. While those results will not be made public until June 20, the New York Times obtained a copy of the results and their report coincided with a public statement issued Wednesday by the Irons family. The statement explains that two independent reviews of the results conclude two likely causes of Irons’ death: heart disease and drug use.

So there you go, now we all know that Andy Irons had a drug problem he had some demons that he could not get rid of and in the the end they got the best of him. Since the death of Andy a light has been put on the surfing world and a lot of fingers have been pointed calling out the “underground” drug and alcohol use of Andy and many other athletes. I have read countless articles blabbing on about a so called code of silence amongst the surfers and sponsors trying to silence Andy from ever going public about his addiction problem. My thoughts while reading those articles were if they only knew what went on in the Motocross and Snowboard industry then they could really start finger pointing. Why surfing is being singled out in this whole mess is beyond me and the only thing I can figure is its just another platform for gossip and small minded idiots to run their mouth about topics that at the end of the day are none of their business.

Over the years I have spent time with many people in the Moto and Snowboard world and with many of them I embarrassed by it. A lot of them are probably on the wall of your kids bedrooms and happen to be people that your children might even look up to. Being a father myself if I knew my child looked up to some of these people it would make me sick to my stomach. If excessive drug and alcohol use was the worst of their crimes they would be a saint. If one sport is going to be called out in the media due to a tragic event, then lets be fair and call out the rest of them as well. It’s only fair right?

An epic rivalry between two greats is what I would prefer to remember.

The real facts when it comes to Andy Irons is that he was one of the greatest surfers that ever lived. He was a man that lived hard, worked hard and ended up getting trapped by the fame that came along with the talent he was able to exploit. The story has been written a million time throughout history. How many athletes, celebrities and heads of state become trapped in their lives and eventually go insane from the confines? Then upon total breakdown or death the accomplishments of their lives are set aside in substation for the skeletons in their closets. Once this is done the only real people left to suffer are the family members that are already dealing with the loss of a father, brother, husband or friend.

When Andy left this world he did so with a wife who was pregnant with his first son. When his son grows older and wants to learn about his father; his victories, his defeats, his milestones and his mistakes he should be able to do this and I am sure Andy would have wanted that. However, he should not have to learn about this years after the entire world has already heard about it and passed their judgements. When his son asks a random person about his dad the only thing anyone needs to say is that he was a great surfer and accomplished many great things. The rest is for the family to know, the rest is for them to be free to do what they would like to do with it. We will remember Andy for his surfing, we will remember him through great stories we have heard form some of his closest friends. We will not remember him for his downfalls, from the gossip and under a negative light and neither should you.

RIP Andy we hope you have found some peace.

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