Without a doubt Bruce’ll be finding some nugs like this off tour as well… photo courtesy ASP

Having won his first ASP World Tour event this past weekend, Bruce Irons is undoubtedly estatic right now. Defeating fellow Hawaiian Fred Patacchia in the finals Somewhere in Indo, Bruce proved that in a bowly left, there might not be a better surfer in the world. (Head here for the photos and the full story of Bruce’s victory.)

If you’ll recall, in our September ‘08 issue we recently reported on the fact that Bruce is calling it quits from the Tour after this year. Well here’s a big announcement regarding this situation: Bruce is still retiring after this year.

In case you’re not a time-to-time football fan like myself (not my favorite sport, but hell, The New York football Giants are the defending Super Bowl Champs right now, so I’m as big of a fan as they come), Brett Favre, one of the games greatest quarterbacks of all time, announced his retirement at the end of last season. And in the last few weeks, Favre has let it be known to the public that he wants to play football still. But the Green Bay Packers initially stated that they’ve moved on, and that they’re ready to start a new chapter in their franchise.

But with Favre’s recent reinstatment into the NFL, there is now a huge quarterback controversy in Green Bay, one that is gaining all the media attention in the world, and frankly, is becoming annoying. So why the hell am I even talking about all this then?

Because now that Bruce has seen the limelight of winning a World Tour event, I fear that he may reconsider his decision, making us look like the asses for saying that he’s retiring. Not really, but it’s more along the lines of not wanting to hear about self-created drama.

It’s all fine and dandy if Bruce wants to surf on the Tour still, though I have a strange feeling that his decision is going to be the same years from now, no matter how many events he wins from here to the end of this year.

And how do I know this you ask? Because surfing is different from football, it’s different from baseball, it’s different from any other sport you’ve ever known in your life. These other sports I’ve mentioned deal with competition, it’s you against someone else, this competition must occur for the game to exist. But with surfing it’s you and the ocean, an endless body of water that begs to be discovered by us.

Kelly came back from retirement at one point, and if he hadn’t I honestly can’t envision what the surf world would be like right now. It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and undoubtedly those 8 (soon to be 9) world titles speaks truth to this. But Bruce is different, and he’s going to make his way just like he made his way before he event put on a jersey.

So Bruce, if you do decide to come back ever, just don’t make it a huge media ploy like the whole Packers bullshit right now, because no one wants to hear about it, they just want to see if you can play, or surf in this case. And I think we all know the answer to that question…