Surfer Profile: Ian Armstrong

Highlights:
1st team world champs ’99, 4th Big Wave Africa 2000.

It was a great treat growing up with Ian in Cape Town. When his talent started showing through, he broke new ground at many surf spots. He was always the one to go deeper and deeper at The Kom, paddling deep behind the pincer. He was the one doing the big airdrops from deep at the Factory when everyone else was sitting on the edge of the ledge looking for an entry point. He was the one paddling out at massive Sunset alone to join the crew that were already there. When he was selected for the South African for the ISA world big wave games the nation were stoked with his selection. He went on to vindicate this selection by winning the event along with Collier and Duffus.
When Red Bull Big Wave Africa was conceptualised and brought to fruition, Ian was one of the first surfers recognised to be invitee. He paddled out the first year when the surfers were basically shooting in the dark, and he suffered a massive wipeout one year and nearly drowned. Who can forget his screams, ‘I’m alive, I’m alive” as he was sent back to the harbour on a rescue boat. He survived that horrendous wipe-out despite hyper-extending his spine to the point of almost snapping it. it was the quick reflexes of safety queen Shawn Alladio that saw him out of danger in the fierce conditions that day.
Ian’s big wave career went through a bit of a patch as he started a family and suffered some disillusionment with big wave competitive surfing. This was short-lived and Ian is back out whenever it is big, and is now a popular surfboard shaper. The other big wave surfers who frequent the spots like Sunset are stoked when Ian joins them in the line-up as he provides a valuable link to the early days of big wave surfing when he was in his youth, the early years of Red Bull as well as the National team title. Ian is also a paddle-in surfer, not part and parcel of the tow brigade who launch with the waverunners whenever it starts looking a bit sketch to paddle. Ian is a surfer who has an affinity with Dungeons and is not one to pull back regardless of how steep or how big the wave is.
Now that he is riding his own equipment Ian is also showing a new maturity in big waves, and his subtle understanding of the big board dynamics has elevated and accelerated his surfing to a new level. His fitness and stamina are legendary and his fearlessness makes him a contender at Dungeons at any size.