Today is Andy Irons’ birthday. He would be 39 years old today. And while it’s not uncommon for us to be pulling up archival A.I. on a regular basis, I recently dug this one up. Chances are the waves were boggy and HB-like and I needed a kick in the ass, and this bit of Andy surfing southern California from Raw Irons always does the trick. But for some reason it really got me. The style, flow and general attitude he brought to a wave — even a shitty wave — is ultra visible in the above clip from Jason Kenworthy directed vid. An underground classic that is as hard to find today as an MCD T-shirt, but worth the hunt through the VHS box. I hope you have it. If not, here’s a few parts. How solid does he look on his surfboard? Still not a day goes by we aren’t missing this dude. With the US Open coming to town, it’s always and forever safe to say: No one will ever win the US Open and surf HB as rad as Andy did.—Travis

Here’s the Hawaii section from Raw Irons, just because: