Former pro surfer Mick Fanning expands his business empire with Point Break workout

He is most known as a world pro surfer but Mick Fanning is also a savvy businessman. And now he’s entering the ultra-competitive fitness industry as he continues to build his $20m business empire post-retirement.

All of the competitive fire has burnt out inside former world surfing champion Mick Fanning.

And yet, away from the churning waves, the 41-year-old has quietly built one of the most impressive business empires of any Australian athlete.

Fanning is now worth an estimated $20 million, with a vast property portfolio, expanding business interests, and loyal sponsors who continue to reap benefits by retaining him beyond retirement.

A savvy businessman, Fanning’s six-figure investment into craft brewing company Balter returned an estimated $4 million windfall when it was sold to Carlton United Breweries for about $150 million in 2019.

Last year, Fanning and Rip Curl founder Doug Warbrick were among several investors to cash in on the $130 million development of luxury apartment complex Esprit, at Rainbow Beach on the Gold Coast.

In comparison, over his 17 years on the world pro surfing tour, during which he was crowned world champ three times, his total prize money earnings were $2.76 million. There were also lucrative sponsorships and incentive payments, but his post-pro surf bank balance dwarfs his surfing pay checks.

Mick Fanning spent 17 years on the world pro surfing tour.

Fanning’s latest business venture is a workout with FS8 that combines yoga, pilates and toning exercises.

Now, he’s entering the ultra-competitive fitness industry, with his own tailor-made workout called Point Break By Mick Fanning, to be launched this summer through pilates and yoga franchise FS8, which has 28 studios across Australia.

“A lot of the time in these businesses, I’m just the sounding board,” Fanning said.

“I sit there and maybe look at it a different way than what people in the company see each and every day, so I try to be a sounding board.”

As for the more familiar surfboard, Fanning will never again ride one on the pro tour.

“On the competition side and that competitive fire, if I’m really honest, it’s sort of died,” he said.

“When I had that six months off in 2016 and came back for a full year in 2017, I just didn’t have the same determination I did to get up each and every day, be at 100 per cent, go to the gym every day and do all that. It was like someone was slowly turning off the gas on a fire, and turned it down, and virtually off.”

Fanning is relishing fatherhood with son Xander and his partner Breeana. Picture: Instagram

The six-month break followed the infamous great white shark attack in South Africa’s J-Bay Open finals in Jeffreys Bay, which catapulted Fanning from surf star to global identity. Video of the incident has been viewed by tens of millions across the world on news channels and social media.

But that wasn’t the only trauma he endured in 2015, going through his separation and eventual divorce from wife Karissa Dalton, and losing his brother Pete at 43 to an enlarged heart.

“(The shark attack) had something to do with it, and then I lost my brother at the end of 2015, emotionally I was just done,” Fanning said.

“I lost the world title in 2015 just by a heat, and I didn’t even go back and rewatch what happened. I just clapped for the other guy and walked away, like I’m OK with that.

“I don’t know, it wasn’t a pinpoint, it was just one day I didn’t have the same desire to get up and do that.

“But then I had desires to go and see the rest of the world, and just live, and see more opportunities in the world and go to places I’d never been to.

The world watched aghast as a shark attacked Fanning during the Final of the JBay surf Open in 2015. Picture: AFP Photo

“It’s living with no expectations, which is fun. I had a really tough 2015, and so I took half the year off in 2016 and I spoke to a fair few people, even having that half year off was really scary, just verbalising it to someone, saying I want to take time off.

“I remember speaking to one of my bosses at Rip Curl, and he’s like, ‘Go away, think about it, because once you’re retired, you’re a long time retired’.

“Sport is such a different thing. Once you leave your sport, you can’t come back. There are people who come back, but do they ever do it as good as they did? It’s hard.

“But that half a year off I had in 2016 mentally prepared me for the next chapter, and got me excited about the possibilities of what are out there.

“And just learning that my self-worth wasn’t just on tour surfing, it was doing what I do personally and what I love to do. It was a big learning curve for me, that 2016 period.”

Fanning in action at Bells Beach this year, competing as a wildcard entry …

… but he couldn’t wait to get back onto the sand to his family. Pictures: Ed Sloane/World Surf League

Fanning’s supporters hoped his one-off return to competitive surfing at Bells Beach earlier this year as a wildcard signalled his desire to return to the tour.

“If anything it sent me the other way,” Fanning said.

“It was funny, I really enjoyed the process of getting ready for the event and getting the body strong, but once I actually pulled the jersey on and paddled out, I didn’t care about the result. Especially having my family there, I just wanted to sit on the beach and play with my son actually.

“It answered a lot of questions for me, which was nice.

“There are a lot of people out there that can’t answer those questions, but I answered mine pretty quickly.

“To be really honest, once I left the tour I was pretty nervous. I didn’t know exactly what path I wanted to go down, or wondering if I was just going to fall off the face of the Earth.

“But I kept doing the things I loved doing, kept surfing and staying active, and business stuff, and it’s blended out pretty easily, luckily for me.

“I know there’s people that struggle when they retire from sport, because you train to be a champion but you don’t get trained to retire. So it does get scary, but I tried to apply the same worth ethic I did when I was on tour to everything I did.”

Fanning says fatherhood is the best thing he has ever done. Picture: Instagram

These days, most of his energy is spent playing the most important role he’ll ever hold, father to two-year-old son Xander.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, it’s so cool even though I’ve got the lowest pull in the house now,” said Fanning, who proposed to partner Breeana Randal when she was eight weeks pregnant.

“It’s amazing, I absolutely love it. Even just going to swimming and watching my son progress in lessons is so exciting, relearning each and every day is so cool.

“I’m the biggest dork again, just running around the playground again, watching him climb, and observe, it’s just so cool.

“I’m just enjoying being part of a family. Structure is something I’ve never had, so taking my son to daycare, going to swimming lessons, I love it, I pour all my energy into that and work when I need to.”

Will Xander become a surfing icon like dad?

“He just goes through moments, like all young kids, some days he likes the beach, some days he hates it,” Fanning said.

“Whatever he wants to do really, I’d love for him to surf but once he’s old enough and finds something he loves he’ll be able to make a decision on where he goes.

“But he can swing a golf club pretty good at the moment too, I’ve got to steer clear otherwise he’ll whack me in the leg.”

Becoming a father also forced Fanning to consider his long-term health. He first got into yoga in 2001 after discovering he had scoliosis — a sideways curve in the spine — that resulted in severe back pain.

“Then I got introduced to pilates, and I just loved that it was strengthening but lengthening at the same time, it was probably around 2011 that I got right into pilates as well,” Fanning said.

Fanning was diagnosed with scoliosis in 2001 and began yoga and pilates not long after that.

That was the genesis for what has now morphed into Mick Inc’s own signature workout.

“Having a young one, I really try to keep mobile, I find every time I sit still I get injured,” Fanning said.

“I don’t want to lift heavy weights, I want to keep mobile and active, and that’s been the perfect thing with FS8, blending all my favourite things all together and putting it into one 50-minute workout.

“It’s yoga, pilates, tone. It’s not like your typical yoga or pilates, things are moving really quick so it’s not your typical Namaste-style, sitting still, it’s like: get in there, get the work done and sweat it out.

“You’re not going to do these workouts and look like Chris Hemsworth, you’ll tone up a little bit, you won’t be so sloppy, which we get over the Christmas period.

“For me it’s just movement, and keeping that strength and movement that allows me to go surfing but also chase the kids around without worrying about pulling a hamstring.”

It seems inevitable that, like most things Fanning touches, the workout bearing his name will yield more fortune. But with business offers coming from all sides, he is very specific about what he gets involved with.

“For me it’s just being authentic,” Fanning said.

“We see a lot of people do things that maybe isn’t them. I made a decision that if I’m going to get involved in something, or get behind something, it’s something I want to use on a daily basis.

“And so I don’t have to make any stories up, I just have to go and do it, and regurgitate what I’m doing.

“For me that’s been the best part. I look at it and say, ‘Will I use it, will I do it?’ Especially in the case of FS8, will I do these workouts, and 100 per cent I will.

“Secondly, is it trying to go somewhere? They’re my main things.

“I don’t get nitty gritty on numbers and want to see all the books of every company I get involved in. I go off my gut feeling.

“If I use it on a day-to-day basis and I believe in it, then I’ll get behind it.”

And once he does, Fanning applies the same attitude that took him to the top of his sport.

“Everyone always looks for a secret ingredient, there is no secret ingredient, it’s just hard work,” he said.

“It’s having that desire when your body is saying no, or your mind is saying no, you go ‘No, I’m going to do this because it’s going to make me better tomorrow’.

“And my biggest asset throughout my whole career was my preparation.

“I didn’t feel like I was as talented as some of the guys on tour, but I felt like I was so much more prepared for any situation, that was the thing that got me through.

“It was probably born into me, being the youngest of five, I had to fight for everything.”

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