The Young Wise Tails: Puerto Rico

Well my trip to Puerto Rico was interesting. It started off with a dinner at a Chili's in San Juan where every single female that walked by was absolutely smoking. The Chili's dinner kinda just set the tone for the whole trip, beautiful women everywhere. I traveled with John Oda and Andrew Jacobson. Andrew had a pretty serious "shit run" for most of our trip but he handled it like a champ. It started at LAX where the guy wouldn't let him get on the plane because he checked in 2 minutes and 45 seconds after you are allowed to. He was forced to pay 450 for boards and to get on the next flight where he had to go by himself. When we all finally arrived at the house, we unloaded our gear and crashed out for the night. We woke up to super fun surf with the whole WCT surfing. It was still awesome to just watch those guys surf but I am not going to lie I did get frustrated multiple times. When the contest started, we watched and had to sit around for three days straight at the contest site to see if they were going to run the contest I was in. After 2 long days of waiting on the beach they decided to run the Gromsearch in the windy wonky waves of Middles. I had all my friends there and I was just having fun. I surfed into the final and was lucky enough to get a win. All the Volcom guys took us all out to dinner and we had a blast. Brad Dougherty, Jack Morrissey, Daniel Terry, Tom Carey, the Pittman's, Oda, Andrew, Brad Gerlach, and I just sat around eating the best sushi ever and laughing our asses off. The next morning I woke up and left. In Dallas, I got a call from my good friend Nick Rupp asking me if Andy Irons was dead. I said I didn't know. I called my buddy and found out it was true. It was just the day before when I saw Andy leaving to the airport, I waved goodbye and he threw me a shaka. After seeing him drive out of the drive way, I wondered if he was going to win a world title again. Sadly, I was wrong as he died shortly after he left. I just can't even believe it to tell you the truth. Conner and I have always looked up to him and Bruce, and to see him gone is just unbearable. I got one of AI's last shakas, and I will never forget that moment until the day I die. That moment of seeing Andy one last time was worth a million dollars to me. I didn't know Andy that well, but man I loved that guy. RIP AI you're never dead in my mind.

Here is some clips from the event: