Mick Fanning’s mum says fighting off a shark will be his legacy in retirement
AS Mick Fanning gets set to retire from an exceptional professional surfing career, even his mum admits that his shark attack on live television in 2015 will be what he is remembered for.
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MICK Fanning’s mum Liz Osborne doesn’t bother telling people what her son’s name is anymore.
She just tells them he was that surfer who got attacked by the shark live on TV.
The triple world surfing champion, who won his first event at Bells Beach as a wildcard in 2001, is one of Australia’s greatest sportsman.
But as he retires from professional surfing at the Rip Curl Pro this week, even his mum admits that his shark attack live on television at Jeffrey’s Bay in South Africa in 2015 will be what he is remembered for.
“When I went to America that year I went into a department store and they asked me why I was in California,” Liz Osborne, 68, said.
“I said I was here because my son was surfing, Mick Fanning. They didn’t know his name but they knew all about the guy who was attacked by a shark.”
Ms Osborne, who is also Fanning’s manager, added: “The shark attack was very good for his career.”
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Fanning has been one of the greatest surfers in Australian history, and one of the few genuine rivals to surfing god Kelly Slater in the modern era.
The 36-year-old always had the talent to become one of the best in the world, and the determination.
Liz, her daughter and her four sons, moved to the Gold Coast from Ballina in New South Wales when Fanning was in Year 7.
Her four boys wanted to be closer to the waves on the Gold Coast and the exposure to sponsors.
Mick’s older brother Sean, who tragically died in a car accident in 1998, was going into year 11 at Palm Beach Currumbin High School when they arrived.
But Mick was told that unlike his former home of New South Wales, students only moved up to high school in year 8.
He was having none of it.
“Mick had the biggest tantrum ever, he said he was not going back to primary school,” Liz said.
“The headmaster said ‘are you smart?,’ he said ‘yes, all right we will give you a go.’.”
And after bluffing his way into skipping a year of school, Mick and his brother Sean set to work on changing the curriculum.
The proud rugby league school did not have a surfing program, despite it being home to some of the world’s best waves.
The headmaster had no chance.
“They nagged and nagged at him. He agreed, they were so lucky that the headmaster listened to them,” Liz said.
And the school’s first surfing team was formed. Fanning surfed all the way through school, sponsored by Quiksilver.
But he changed over to Rip Curl when he was in Year 12 and had to go on a boat trip in Indonesia.
He had already missed a fair bit of school and this was the last straw.
“School said if you don’t come to school tomorrow, then you’re out and that was in the middle of year 12,” Liz said.
Fanning never finished school, or went to university. But he’s on track to become the Elon Musk of surfing.
He has his own brewery, Balter, makes his own environmentally friendly surfboards, spruiked Mercedes-Benz cars and became an environmental warrior for charity Wild Ark.
When he does retire from surfing to his beachfront home at Bilinga, near Coolangatta, he will be busy.
But his career might not have gone so well.
Sean’s death when Mick was only 17 was a massive blow.
And his brother Peter died in 2015, when he was 43, of a heart condition that led to Mick taking a year off the tour.
In his early days, there were some concerns that his party-loving alter ego “Eugene” might derail Mick’s career.
Eugene, Mick’s middle name, came out when the young surfer was on a bender. His amusing, sometimes outrageous behaviour, was the stuff of legend.
Liz heard some of the stories, but said that he was just having fun with his mates Joel Parkinson and Dean Morrison, who were dubbed the Coolie kids because of their Gold Coast home.
“All they did was party in their first year on tour and Mick still came fifth,” Liz said.
“He’s still had the best rookie year, no-one has been able to achieve that again.”
Those partying ways were swept aside following an almost career ending injury in 2004.
Mick was surfing in the Mentawai Islands, a beautiful remote part of Indonesia with pumping waves when he ripped his hamstring off the bone in 2004.
He spent six months on the sidelines while it healed and was also diagnosed with scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.
Mick fixed his back problem through intense training and came back and won the world title in 2007.
“He started training every day and he never stopped because of the scoliosis,” Liz said.
“They used to laugh at him when he started a ritual before his heat of sitting down on the beach and meditating.
“But now they all do it, John John Florence, Medina. He’s been a trendsetter.”
Mick’s 17 year surfing career has also been a job for his mum, she became his manager in 2002.
She said she had to ask Mick if she will still have a role after he hangs up his competition board.
“I was a bit worried so I rang him. I said do I still have a job? I’m willing to take a pay cut,” she said.
“He just laughed and said ‘Mum, while I get paid, you’ll get paid. Don’t worry, you’ll be right.”
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