Guest Viewpoint for Tuesday — April 13, 2004

• Who is bashing who?

Who is bashing who?

By Andy Melamed

I am not really sure what Mr. Josh Elliot of Sports Illustrated was trying to prove with his backhanded coverage of the Andy Irons/Kelly Slater bout this past winter on the North Shore of O‘ahu. One might think that second best deserves a four page international spread after leaving the land of bitterfruit. Many of Mr. Elliot’s conclusions about the Irons family were printed in his article through admitted hearsay. He actually could have gone to the source and talked at length with the family and Andy, about growing up, priming and conditioning for contests, but instead he chose to draw his own somewhat slanderous conclusions that left us all floundering in a channel of disbelief.

Josh Elliot’s approach and final product which was a feature article on Kelly Slater at the expense of the Irons family showed a lack of conscientious journalism.

If this piece was meant to be an editorial why not label it as such and give it some back page S.I. positioning. If it was an advertisement for Mr. Slater then they missed an opportunity to plaster some logos and banners around the piece and make it a pullout centerfold.

In the surfing world, we all know moves on waves are judged subjectively over a very short period of time. Parity in the sport leaves the actual choice of waves and along with mental fortitude playing an important part in the winning of contests. In fact more than half the battle in the water is that of mental posturing and positioning for the best waves in a set. If there is verbal jousting before or during an event it is up to the individual competitors to determine how these words affect them while in the heat of battle. Triangles or penalties are enforced only when physical interference takes place in one way shape or form. According to Mr. Elliot Andy’s verbal behavior and his personal background were grounds for eliminating him before the contest even began. Thankfully the judges didn’t see it that way.

The results of the face offs before the contest between Andy and Kelly became most apparent in the water during the 30 minute Pipemasters final. A championship was at stake and Kelly was unable to get prime positioning for his waves while Andy did. Maybe some mental jousting before or even during the heat affected Kelly’s lineup and wave choice. One will never really know. Let it be known however that Andy Irons captured the ASP World Championship Trophy, as well as the highly vaulted Hawaiian Triple Crown of Surfing and the Pipemasters Championship all with that particular victory. Andy was also voted #1 worldwide by readers of Surfer Magazine in their poll. And though most of us in the surfing world are aware of it Mr. Elliot barely mentioned it at all. Andy garnered more respect from his judges and peers in all phases of this sport, none however from Mr. Elliot. Why must we be forced to read between the lines in his article to find just a smattering of these unique accomplishments. I came away from his article thinking that Andy and Bruce Irons and his family and friends were a cross between Tonya Harding-Sonny Liston and some sort of Sunset Beach Mafia. Lets give the champion the credit that he deserves in and out of the water.

I have a suspicion Mr. Elliot is positioning himself to be Kelly Slater’s new public relations manager thinking he might be a perfect spokesperson for Prozac.

If this is an example of the sort of sports coverage we are to expect from Sports Illustrated maybe it should be displayed next to the Enquirer at our neighborhood grocery stores and maybe Mr. Elliot’s next piece should feature an interview with the runner up of the Kentucky Derby — a hint to that horse and his trainer is to make sure he records the interview in its entirety and to make sure he gets to read the article and its quotes before it goes to press, otherwise we all just might be exposed to some additional horse droppings.

Andy Melamed is a resident of Hanalei