In honor of Bruce Irons' birthday, Lewis Samuels offered these thoughts on the younger Irons brother. That's Andy Irons, above, riding in front of Bruce. Photo: Gorhdino.

Three years ago, SURFER sent me to Kauai to interview Bruce Irons. "Not Dying Young," the subsequent profile, came out four months before Andy’s death. The title stemmed from my assertion that Bruce could have been surfing’s Jimi Hendrix, James Dean, Kurt Cobain, if only he’d died young. Instead, Bruce had seemingly moved on with the messy, difficult task of growing up. I didn’t set out to write about Andy—as a younger brother, I knew how difficult it can be to grow up in the long shadow of a domineering older sibling. But during my time on Kauai, the conversations I had with Bruce inevitably kept returning to Andy.

Bruce saw his own genesis myth in his first contest as a grom, which he won. Keala Kennelly got third, and Andy fifth. Bruce recounted with glee how Andy was so embarrassed and angry when he lost to both Bruce 

 a girl that he threw his trophy into the trees. Bruce got a taste that day—not of winning, but of pissing Andy off by winning. That taste was enough to make him one of the world's best surfers.

When we spoke of their lifelong rivalry, Bruce told me, “If anything, it’s a lot heavier than people know. People ask about it in interviews, they think it’s funny, but it’s dead fucking serious. It goes beyond. It goes with us; it goes home. Eventually we’ll start fist-fighting; it gets physical. That’s how passionate we are about our rivalry. That’s what put the fire in me. With my brother, you can’t show any sign of weakness. I was born premature, my brother was always way bigger, I was really little, and I just had to deal with it. Andy’s a competitive machine. I’m not really that competitive—except with him.”

At the time of our interview, Bruce had been off tour for about a year, and viewed his competitive stint in a mostly rueful light, despite his win in Bali in 2008. “I made the tour and just disappeared,” Bruce told me. “The only reason I did it anyway was because my brother was doing it. He won those world titles, and I didn’t want to be on Kauai someday saying, ‘I coulda stomped you, woulda coulda shoulda . . .’ But I didn’t think I’d ever make it. I didn’t think I surfed good enough.”

By early 2010, Andy had been in for freefall for a while. I noted in the profile that without Andy on top, Bruce seemingly had nothing to live up to. I can’t imagine things have gotten any easier in the three years since Andy’s death.

Bruce Irons turns 34 today. I wish him the best. I wish we were seeing more of him.

LEWIS SAMUELS ON BIRTHDAY BOY BRUCE IRONS

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