With a huge crowd on the beach, Andy and Bruce Irons of Hanalei easily surged past their Round Three competitors yesterday at the Quiksilver Pro Presented by Boost Mobile at Snapper Rocks, setting up a much-anticipated showdown against each other.
With a huge crowd on the beach, Andy and Bruce Irons of Hanalei easily surged past their Round Three competitors yesterday at the Quiksilver Pro Presented by Boost Mobile at Snapper Rocks, setting up a much-anticipated showdown against each other.
The Round Four heat, scheduled for today if the waves continue to hold, will pit two of the hottest surfers in the contest.
Andy, 26, and Bruce, 25 had the two highest wave scores yesterday, when their Round Three heats went off at Snapper Rocks, Australia, in clean, two-to-three-foot conditions.
Andy whipped Australian wildcard Luke Munro, taking the lead three minutes into his heat with a 6.50 score.
He then put on insurmountable pressure with a 9.67, the highest score of the day.
Not to be outdone, Bruce scored the second-highest score of the day, a 9.50, to easily get by Californian Taylor Knox.
Bruce also leads the “Evian Longest Tuberide” specialty award for locking into the longest barrel of the event thus far, a seven second tube ride that earned him an 8.83 in Round One. If he holds on, he’ll take home the $5,000 bonus Evian check.
But, next up, is his ultracompetitve older brother, the reigning three-time Association of Surfing Professionals’ World Championship tour.
“It’ll be good” taking on Andy, Bruce said after his heat, “but I’d rather be facing Luke (Munro).”
The heat is far from the first time the two have faced each other.
From the lineup at Pinetrees to last year’s World Championship Tour final in France, the two Irons brothers have dueled publicly and privately.
So far, the two remained tied on the WCT.
Bruce beat Andy in a heat of the Boost Mobile Pro Presented by Quiksilver at Trestles in California in 2003. The two also scored perfect Hossegor last year, with Andy taking the top spot at the Quiksilver Pro at Hossegor, France.
“He got one on me at Trestles and I beat him in France so this will be the tie-breaker,” Andy said. “I’m going to enjoy every second of it – me and my brother out at Snapper, it should be awesome.”
