You really couldn’t script a more perfect moment for meeting Mick Fanning.
asserted
You → script → Fanning
A blazing sun rises from the watery horizon to the east, throwing golden light onto sandy Coolangatta, while a breezy, briny combo of spray and spit kicks up off the Pacific Ocean sky and into our eyes.
asserted
combo → blaze → eyes
A strange hippie woman is dancing and bellowing and smacking clap sticks together on the beach – she’s a regular here, apparently – while fishermen cast for bream off the big black basalt rocks on the headland.
asserted
fishermen → dance → headland
This place – Snapper Rocks, at the quiet southern edge of the Gold Coast – is already putting on a show for us when a brush turkey struts through a clearing, an eagle arcs on the wind, and a rainbow – no, wait, a pair of rainbows? – beams down on Rainbow Bay (seriously), where fearless, frothing grommets carve lacerating turns into the famous point break.
asserted
grommets → put → break
Fanning, meanwhile, stands barefoot in jeans and T-shirt, blond stubble over anvil jaw – a study in coiled power – posing for a picture.
asserted
stubble → stand → picture
And that’s when it happens – the ludicrous exclamation mark on this preposterously pretty scene.
asserted
it → ’ → scene
As his blue steel eyes lock in on the lens for the money shot, an enormous humpback whale breaches – right behind him – before smashing back down into the blue and sending a surge of foam skyward.
asserted
whale → lock → foam
Fanning, now 45 and with smile lines betraying his years, offers a knowing yet grateful grin.
asserted
Fanning → betray → grin
“We’re so lucky.
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We → ’re → ?
People travel all the way around the world for this,” he says.
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he → travel → this
“But to me, it’s the place where I grew up, the place where I learnt my skills.
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I → ’ → skills
It’s home.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
It’s a place to reconnect with Mother Nature, but also with yourself.
asserted
It → ’ → yourself
A place where you just switch off.
asserted
you → switch → ?
If anyone has earned the right to just switch off, it’s Michael Eugene Fanning.
asserted
it → earn → right
Allow me to share the cinematic crib notes.
asserted
me → allow → notes
Once a bleach-blond quicksilver teenage surfer, he becomes a three-time world champion (in 2007, 2009 and 2013).
asserted
he → become → 2007
Then in 2015, he punches a great white shark off the coast of South Africa.
asserted
he → punch → Africa
As you do.
asserted
you → do → ?
He becomes a meme – “Unless someone defeats ISIS with a boomerang,” went one tweet, “then Mick Fanning definitely wins Australian of the Year, right?” – but he also experiences recurring night terrors and triggering moments in the water.
asserted
he → become → water
Far more pivotal to his life story, however, is his family, much of which is taken cruelly from him.
asserted
much → take → him
Fanning once had three big brothers – Sean, Peter and Ed – but all died early, after (respectively) a car accident, a heart condition and a badly infected wound.
asserted
all → have → accident
His dad, John, sipped his last Guinness earlier this year before slipping away, too.
asserted
dad → sip → Guinness
His sister Rachel lives overseas, but his doting mum, Liz, lives just down the road (thankfully).
asserted
mum → live → road
Fanning’s been married and divorced – now remarried with two kids – and I’m wondering what an average day looks like after he cooks brekkie for the family, kisses wife Bree at the door, does the school run for son Xander, 6, and daughter Lyla, 2,
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he → marry → Xander
What does his middle-aged dream life look like?
asserted
life → look → What
“Being a fat old retired surfer!” says Fanning, laughing.
asserted
Fanning → say → ?
“I guess I just want to show my kids the world that I had – seeing all the beautiful places, the beautiful cultures – and exposing them to how incredible life is.”
asserted
life → guess → them
But he also wants them to understand the importance of the values that helped him survive and thrive through tragedy and triumph.
asserted
him → want → tragedy
“You never want to be scared to take that unknown step,” he says.
asserted
he → want → step
“You’ve only got one shot at life – you might as well give it all you’ve got.”
uncertain
you → get → all
Everything starts with Sean.
asserted
Everything → start → Sean
“Don’t get a big head,” he used to tell little Mick.
asserted
he → get → Mick
“Otherwise, I’ll come and bash it in.”
asserted
I → come → it
Liz points to a photo of them on the wall of her ocean-view apartment, arm-in-arm as kids, and then to framed images of her eldest sons, too.
asserted
Liz → point → sons
When Ed, 48, died in 2024, having cut himself on coral in Madagascar (then failing to recover from the infected wound), she remembers how Mick offered up a vulnerable and plaintive question: “Mum, is this going to happen to me?
asserted
this → die → me
Am I not going to be here, too?”
asserted
I → go → ?
When Pete, 43, died in his sleep from a heart condition in 2015, she adds, Mick was again tender and beautiful – “Mum, let me make you a cup of coffee” – but he was also bereft.
Sean’s death was different.
asserted
death → die → coffee
Mick had grown up as the youngest sibling, the protected one – an affectionate, happy, athletic boy – and maybe even a bit of a sook.
asserted
Mick → grow → sook
“He probably slept with me until he was 12 years old,” Liz says.
asserted
Liz → sleep → me
…and 218 more, not listed.
The Aporia
