A freakishly talented but troubled surfing prodigy who was once touted as Australia’s answer to Kelly Slater has tragically died aged 53.
Shane ‘Herro’ Herring died in his sleep on Sunday morning, hours after falling down a set of stairs inside his apartment in Tweed Heads and complaining of a sore head.
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Born in Manly on Sydney’s northern beaches to a lifeguard dad and barmaid mum, Herring spent his youth skipping school and charging waves.
He hit the big time when he knocked out Slater in the final of the ‘92 Coke Classic pro event at North Narrabeen, catapulting to world number one and instant stardom.
“The first strike of a new age,” legendary surf journalist Derek Hynd wrote after the duel between the pair. “These two will battle for future championships.”
Sadly, his prediction was only partly correct.
While Slater went on to become the greatest surfer of all time, Herring would never win another title and crashed out of the tour two years later as he grappled with a drug addiction.
“Shane’s mates almost killed him with their demented love of him,” surfer and artist Monty Webber recalled in a piece for Tracks Magazine.
“Every night was like New Year’s Eve and Shane footed the bill. I saw him consume so much alcohol and smoke so much weed one night that I wondered what it was he was trying to prove.
“I couldn’t help but think he was trying to kill the monster he’d become.”
Webber said fans offered Herring drugs “everywhere” he went, desperate to “feed the beast” after hearing the story of a “drug-addicted-alcoholic-pro-surfer”.
In an interview with Vaughan Blakey in 2012, Herring admitted how his six-figure sponsorship deals and tour earnings were almost entirely blown on drugs and booze.
“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,” he said.
“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 f***ing s***.
“When you get depressed you really f*** 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.”
Herring battled with drug and alcohol addiction for over a decade, spending time in psychiatric facilities before a year-long stint in rehab in 2010.
He later worked in Byron Bay as a ding repairer, according to BeachGrit’s Derek Rielly, before reconnecting with legendary shaper Greg Webber in 2020 to collaborate on a line of boards.
“Despite his long struggles, Shano had been off the drink in recent years,” Surfing World wrote on social media on Tuesday.
“A surfing talent like few we’d ever seen in Australian surfing, Herro burned brief but bright in the early ‘90s before flaming out.
“He lived quietly on the North Coast in the decades after, and while he still had his issues with the drink, he could be occasionally coaxed back into the water to feel the old magic and he kept shaping boards to the end.”
Kelly Slater, Herring’s original arch rival, shared a touching tribute online after news of his death broke.
“He best blended the old school power and pure lines with the new school mentality and speed in the 90’s,” Slater wrote, describing Herring as a “kindhearted guy and extremely talented surfer.”
“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… Ride on, Shane. We’re thinking of ya.”
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