Kelly Slater, among dozens of other surfing notables, has posted two emotional tributes to his former foe Shane Herring, who died yesterday aged just fifty-three.
Herring fell down the stairs of his top floor joint in West Tweed, a few clicks back from the Supabank in Coolangatta, felt ok, had a little something to eat, went back to bed and never woke up.
His early demise wasn’t entirely a surprise, although money would’ve been on misadventure by drugs not a two am tumble down a set of stairs. Herring had quit the tour after the 1994 circuit but wasn’t overly concerned about the future. What twenty three year old is?
Herring had three hundred gees in the bank and, still, the world at his feet if he wanted it.
He burnt through the cash in two years.
Again, from his interview with Vaughan Blakey twelve years back.
“A lot of it went up my nose. Started out as coke, but eventually ended up as lower-class drugs. Amphetamines… You don’t even know it when it’s happening. You don’t know until you get depressed and they put you on psychiatric drugs and then it takes a long time to get off that fucking shit. When you get depressed you really fuck up. And that’s when they think you’re a harm to yourself and a harm to society. So basically don’t even go there. Don’t take drugs.”
When Slater heard the news he wrote,
“I’m so sad to get this news tonight. Shane Herring was a dear friend some decades ago. We lost touch for years but never lost our connection. Shane’s surfing and friendship early years on tour had a huge impact on me and my surfing. I deeply admired his raw talent and childlike spirit, his respect for the roots of surfing and desire to make our elders proud.”
And,
“Shane Herring. He best blended the old school power and pure lines with the new school mentality and speed in the nineties. In the years we spent travelling and surfing together, I always found Shane to be a kindhearted guy and an extremely talented surfer, but he had his demons that limited his time of greatness. He loved the purity in surfing and was uncomfortable with the limelight and notoriety and scrutiny it brought him. He made a bigger mark than he might be known for these days and it hurts to know we won’t get to catch up again. I was really looking forward to seeing and maybe even surfing again the coming months with Shane, whom I haven’t seen in probably twenty-plus years. This clips is the first final we each made on tour and he won in front of his hometown. Ride on, Shane. We’re thinking of ya.”
Classy.
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