There were no waves, the heat was oppressive, and Andy was on deck with a sore head, leaving the rest of us treading on eggshells around the unspoken, but well known, fact of the overboard computer. Andy blew his top, as only he could when losing to his brother, and went back to his cabin and vented his rage by hurling his own laptop into the Pacific.īy the time the sun rose the next day, the air was pregnant with that sick, sullen hangover tension.
One morning that stood out was after a wild evening that had involved an all day drinking session, then a night of poker, which culminated in Andy losing a big hand to Bruce. Andy was fresh off his third world title and at the height of his powers, while Bruce, Fanning, Jamie O’Brien, Alex Gray and Ian Walsh were also on board. I remember a Red Bull Fiji boat trip I went on back in the 2000s. It’s a trade I’m okay with and hopefully you the readers can understand why.Īndy, of course, was the most obvious case for both his flaws and his talent were so extreme. Now for me that has meant I’ve often traded friendship for telling personal truths. Surf journalists also tend to become (relatively) close with some of the surfers. It’s not exactly truthful, but at Tracks we weren’t about hard hitting truth nor salacious gossip. Now I don’t really have a problem with that approach. Whether that be personality traits or drug dependency, it wasn’t something we touched.
Yet that approach also comes with a willful neglect to publicise the flaws of our heroes.