Andy Irons was the people’s champion. Coming from humble beginnings, he and brother Bruce rocked the surfing world alongside the likes of Kelly Slater and Mick Fanning.

On 2 November, 2010, Andy passed away at the age of 32. The cause? A heart attack, with the secondary cause being an acute mixture of drugs.

Now, director Todd Jones has chronicled Andy’s life story in the documentary, Andy: The Untold Story of Andy Irons. Explaining on the Kickstarter campaign:

We privately financed the film. We do not want any corporate influence in it because we wanted to true story to be our soul focus and did not want any external forces influencing our decision process.

Here’s the film’s synopsis from YouTube, with the trailer below:

The film chronicles Andy’s struggles with dyslexia, bipolar disease, self-medication, addiction, fame, success, and failure. Andy was a blue collar people’s champ who dealt with the same issues millions of people around the world struggle with every day. He died on November 2, 2010. His wife was eight months pregnant with their son, Axel, at the time.

Yoh, definitely got me a little teary.

[source:shockmansion]