There aren’t that many surfers who can say he didn’t have an impact on them. His style, flare, attitude, movie parts, his brother and that prowess at Backdoor and Pipe. Bruce Irons epitomized all of the good, the bad and the amazing about surfing. He won all the things he needed to win (Pipe Masters, The Eddie and The Rip Curl Search WCT event in Bali), and he was punk enough to know that that wasn’t the end-all-be-all. He represented freesurfing while still being a winner.

Over the past few years Bruce has gone through some of the hardest things people can go through in losing a best friend and brother. But he’s maintained what’s important, built around himself and for the first time in a long time, we got a chance to look him in the eyes and talk. And what we found was a really rad and honest man.

Watch part two here.