‘In his happy place’: Emotional farewell for surf legend’s brother
A tearful Gold Coast surfing legend Mick Fanning has farewelled his last surviving brother, just days after becoming a dad for a second time.
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A tearful Gold Coast surfing legend Mick Fanning has farewelled his last surviving brother, just days after becoming a dad for a second time.
Ed Fanning, 48, died late last month from an infected cut in Madagascar where he had been living and working as a surf coach.
He was the third of Fanning’s brothers to pass prematurely, after sibling Peter, 43, succumbed to a health-related condition in 2015 as Mick duelled for a fourth world title in Hawaii. His other brother, Sean, 20, was killed in a horror car crash at Rainbow Bay on the southern Gold Coast in 1998 which also claimed the life of another talented young local surfer, Joel Green.
Hundreds of mourners including fellow surfing greats packed the Greenmount Surf Club on Saturday morning to celebrate Ed’s colourful life.
It was a bittersweet week for Fanning and his family after his partner Breeana gave birth to a baby girl, a sister to the couple’s son, Xander, 3, on Thursday.
Ed Fanning was remembered as a party-loving larrikin with a “heart of gold” and a talented surfer who Mick, a triple world champion, credited with inspiring him into the waves.
“Ed was so passionate about surfing that us brothers could only follow him to the beach and see for ourselves,” an emotional Mick told the service.
“It was truly something life-changing, getting that first taste of the ocean in Coffs Harbour (where the Fanning brothers started surfing).
“Ed had a dream to become a pro surfer with his best mates.”
Fanning shared humorous stories of growing up with Ed, including the time he played air guitar at a school concert to the strains of Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.
Fanning joked that the track essentially became his brother’s lifelong theme song, given his knack of getting his “money for nothing and your chicks for free”.
He told of taking Ed out in huge waves at Hawaii’s Sunset Beach after a multi-day drinking bender, and of Ed constantly raiding his wardrobe and boardroom for free clothes and surfboards.
Fanning said Ed loved a beer and feared he would one day get a call that his brother, who “never thought he was good enough”, had drunk “his last schooner”.
But he said Ed was in his “happy place” in Madagascar after moving there four years ago to teach tourists and local children surfing.
“He changed, he was happy,” Fanning said.
“Every time I rang him when he was in Madagascar, it gave me hope.”
Fanning family matriarch Liz Osborne told fondly of her son’s love of the Wests Tigers NRL team, his hatred of losing surfing heats, his cheeky boast of being a member of former federal Treasurer Paul Keating’s “surf team” while he was on the dole, and how he had once lived on porridge while travelling and surfing around Australia.
Ms Osborne said Ed had a partner in Madagascar and they had adopted a little girl called Jelly Baby, who had previously lived in a stormwater drain in the impoverished East African country.
“He was so loved by all the people over there,” Ms Osborne told the service.
“I’m going back next week to see where my boy is buried, in his happy place, surrounded by such love.”
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