In professional surfing, judges award the highest points to waves ridden with the greatest risk, speed, and control. Based on that logic, Mick Fanning should have banked a closet full of world championship trophies. To watch him surf, one is first stricken by his speed. Dubbed “White Lightning,” the bleach blond Aussie regular foot glides from rail carve to rail carve with full-tilt blinding velocity coupled with a mechanical precision that places his board square in the power from take-off to kick out. Even in comparison to the world’s most timeless talents like Slater and Curren, Fanning’s top-to-bottom combo appears futuristic. Shouldered with baggage of family tragedy and severe injury, Mick Fanning has balanced the edge between hard drinking Coolangata homeboy and two-time professional surfing champion whose clean and flawless surfing cloaks an out-of-the-box character channeling surfing’s feral early years.
Born June 13, 1981, far from the beach in Penrith, NSW, Australia, Mick Eugene Fanning trudged a tough path. His parents divorced when he was just an infant, and he wouldn’t get to know his father until much later in life. Mick first stood on a surfboard at age 5, not adopting the lifestyle until 12. He moved with his mother to Tweed Heads where the family struggled to make ends meet. Years later, he would tell how those meager years would instill a marked apathy towards material goods, and as surfing fast became a career for Mick, he found something more, something in his DNA that connected him to his home break of legendary Snapper Rocks. The area’s perfect waves and fierce competition brought out the best in Mick, as he spent his adolescence honing his skills with good friend Joel Parkinson.
By 1996, Mick Fanning had distinguished himself as one of Queensland’s great talents with a top-three finish at the Australian National Titles and soon a win at the Pro Junior. But as one star rose for the teenage athlete, fate would have another fall. When Mick was 17, his older brother Sean along with friend Joel Green was killed in a car accident. As word spread, Mick was saddled with the responsibility of breaking the news to his dad, sisters, and brothers. As Mick grieved (remaining in his house for days) the local surf community grieved alongside him as the lineup at Snapper Rocks emptied before a memorial paddle out for Sean.
But nothing could hold back White Lightning. Strong finishes on the 2001 World Qualifying Series (WQS) afforded Fanning an opportunity to grab a wild card entry at the Rip Curl Pro, an event that ended with Fanning at the top of the heap (a win he dedicated to his fallen brother). The following year, he won the Billabong Pro at Jeffrey’s Bay and scratched to the top spot of the WQS. His 2002 sponsored video bio “Fanning the Fire” highlighted the blurred speed and ruler edged perfection of a rising star. The same year, Mick found himself firmly on the ASP Tour, finishing his rookie year in the top five. But again, fate disrupted his ascent. Two years after his stellar pro debut, he ripped a hamstring while on a photo shoot in Indonesia. The result was major surgery, but extensive rehabilitation (complete with metal screws) would get him back in the water. By the start of 2007 after five years of competing on the ASP Tour, Fanning burst out of the gate with a win in the first event, the Quiksilver Pro, and later at the Santa Catarina Pro. 2007 ended with Mick Fanning taking his first world title.
However, as the following year progressed, Fanning struggled under massive expectation and media focus in addition to more injuries. He dropped to 8th place. 2009 didn’t look to be much better as the trophy slipped farther and farther out of reach as hometown buddy Joel Parkinson surfed brilliantly. Parko had the season on lock until a mid-season ankle injury opened the door for a re-charged White Lightning. The title came down to Pipeline. Parko fell in the 3rd Round, and Fanning grabbed his second world championship.
Throughout his career, Fanning proved to have distinctive layers. In the American press, he appeared the one-dimensional surf machine, but deeper fires burned. For one, family was an essential component to the Fanning formula. Using his vantage point as a traveling athlete, he spirited away from France after an early round loss to travel to Ireland and explore his family roots. Taking the trip with Parko and Nathan Hedge, Fanning met his God parents and searched out his father’s childhood home.
And while Mick’s accomplishments and his rigorous training would suggest the sensibilities of the consummate professional, Mick’s behavior behind the scenes could veer off into something altogether more chaotic. At the 2009 Surfer Poll event at the Sun Theatre, in Anahiem, California, flush with Vodka and Red Bull, a belligerent Fanning heckled American icon Kelly Slater during a speech, calling him “Jimmy Slade” (a reference to his dubious Baywatch role). But when Kelly in an attempt to defuse the awkwardness invited Mick on stage and asked what would happen if the 10-time champion had done the same thing in Australia, the fired up Fanning replied, “You’d get laid!” Upon retrospect, Mick told Surfer Magazine’s Chris Mauro, “I don’t remember much of last year…it was one of those dickhead moments in my life.” But hard partying and manic, drunken stripping have proven status quo for his alter ego “Eugene” and a badge of honor for what was termed a new breed of Aussie surf stars. The dry, blunt edged pro image did not sit well with him and his mates: Parko and Dean “Dingo” Morrison. But demons be damned, Matt Warshaw would call the trio of Coolangata Kids, the hottest Aussie surfers since Michael Peterson, Peter Townend, and Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew.
But although 2011 proved another tough year for Fanning as he bounced from questionable judges’ calls to a season ending neck injury, 2012 unveiled a well-rested and rejuvenated Fanning getting ready for the Quiksilver Pro, eager to jump back into the fray. He posted the top scores at the Kirra Surfriders Club event on the Gold Coast against decidedly hot competition Owen Wright, Parko, and Mark “Occy” Occhilupo. Mick admitted, “It was definitely a break I needed. I was feeling pretty stale and pretty close to burnout towards the end of the year.” Burnout is bound to happen to surfing is as white hot as Fanning’s, but if his rise and fall from injury and tragedy to world champion surfer has proven anything, it’s that lightning can strike more than once.
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