Along the famous old steps at Bells Beach are the names of past winners of the Rip Curl Pro. Such a deep-and-meaningful setting. You swear the ghosts of all these larger-than-life figures are forever swirling around the clifftops. Perhaps Michael Peterson is still sleeping in the bushes. One of Bells’ favourites sons is remembered here four times. His name is Mick Fanning.
I stared at Fanning’s plaques on Thursday. The contest was on hold. It was overcast and windy. Barely a soul was around. By no means am I especially close to Fanning but I had a bit to do with him when he was racking up his three world titles. He was a good and extremely likeable human long before he became a household name by putting one on the snoz of a shark at Jeffreys Bay.
I was fortunate enough to get to know his darling of a mother, Liz Osborne, one of the most beautiful, big-hearted people in this world, and thinking of them right here and now – my heart is breaking into a million pieces. Mick had three brothers, and Liz had four sons, and as of this week … all except Mick have died.
I hate writing it like that. Sounds too blunt. I’m sorry. But how else to put it? Sean, 20, passed away in a car crash at Coolangatta in 1998. Mick ran home to tell Liz and then didn’t leave his bedroom for a week. Peter, 43, died in his sleep at Tweed Heads in 2015 from complications related to an enlarged heart while Mick was competing at the Pipe Masters. Ed was lost while working at a surf camp at Madagascar this week. Too bloody sad for words … but let’s give it a go.
I was sitting with Mick at Imbituba, Brazil, not long after he won his first world title in 2007. He was in a bit of shock, asking, “What am I meant to do now?” He cracked open a celebratory ale. After a year of being reluctant to talk too much about Sean because “talking can be overrated,” Mick opened up about his brother.
“He was a funny bastard, Sean,” he said. “He was a character, really funny and cheeky but he had a lot of respect for people. He was one of those guys who was the leader of the pack. He wanted to make sure everyone was OK. He was a few years older than me and my mates but I looked up to him because he was a really good guy. You know when you’re kind of 15 and 16 and you have that older guy you want to be like? I guess that was Sean with me. I just followed him round everywhere. Whatever he was doing, I wanted to do it with him. Whatever he said, went. He was my older brother so I just couldn’t imagine there would ever be a time when he wasn’t there.”
Heart. Broke. Into. A. Million. Pieces. Then. Too. “I didn’t really understand it when Sean died,” Mick said in nearly a whisper. We had some amazing times together, so losing him was extremely difficult. I just don’t want anyone to forget about him. He played such a big role in my life and the lives of everyone in my family. He could have made the tour but he just didn’t get the chance. I didn’t want to waste this year because who knows if I’ll ever get into this position again. I miss Sean, you know. I really do. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that. I don’t even know if you’re supposed to. And I don’t know if I want to. I like having him here. I still think about him a lot and I feel like his spirit is around me. And his energy. I can feel that a lot. I guess it’s become easier to deal with over the years because I’ve just gotten used to the way I think about him. It’s almost like I’ve got this older brother now or … I don’t know how to explain it. It’s weird.
Sean died in a car crash on the Gold Coast in 1998. “There are times when all I want to do is see him again,” Mick said. “It’s like I keep expecting it to happen. I guess it’s like if you have a friend you’ve grown up with, but then your friend moves to a different town. You’ve always done everything together. You’ve gone to all the same places together. But then your friend is somewhere else and you don’t see him any more. You’re the one still going to the same places and you can’t help wishing your friend was still there. You keep imagining what it would be like if he was still around. Sometimes I dream about him every night for a whole week and that gets me so pumped. I feel amazing when I wake up in the morning because I feel like I’ve spent some time with him. Everyone has people like that in their lives. Just talking to them on the phone can give them all this amazing energy. I see that happening all the time with people. It can feel very real. I’d do anything to be able to see him again, just one more time. Just for a couple of minutes.”
A million pieces. When Peter died, there was so much sorrow for Mick and Liz that the sun nearly didn’t come up in the morning at Pipe. He did a gut-wrenchingly emotional interview with World Surf League commentator Rosie Hodge.
Hodge: “This energy on the beach. You deserve it so much. Can you feel the whole journey you’ve been on this year, can you feel it coming to fruition? I mean, today is the day it’s going to go down.”
Fanning: “I’m walking down the beach and I’m almost in tears every time I’m paddling out. You know, a friend told me once, we can deal with anything. We’ve just got to do it the best you can and stay true to yourself and …”
Hodge: (weeping. Interview ends).
The following year at her rental house at Jan Juc during the Rip Curl Pro, that darling woman Liz put the kettle on and tried putting the losses of Sean and Peter into words. She placed a box of tissues on her lap. Our interview ended nearly faster than Hodge’s. Oh my goodness. If you think Mick is a ripper, you should meet Liz.
“I’m getting emotional. I’m sorry,” she said. “To lose one son is a tragedy. When you lose two? I was hysterical.”
Peter was on the Gold Coast when Liz and Mick were at Pipe. He died in his sleep from complications relating to an enlarged heart. “I felt a foreboding,” she said “He hadn’t been feeling well. I started ringing him but I couldn’t get through. I knew it wasn’t good. The cleaner had a key to the house. So I called her and said, ‘I wonder if you could check that Peter is OK?’ My heart was pounding. I just had the strongest sense that something had happened. The cleaner went inside and found his body. He was dressed for work. He’d died that morning. I heard it all down the phone line. It was horrible. Horrible … I screamed, I cried. Somebody had to tell Mick.”
Liz was staying at the Turtle Bay Resort. Mick was in a house overlooking Pipe. What happened next tells everything you need to know about Mick. If nothing else in this world, he’s good to his mum. Oh, jeez. I cannot fathom they went through this twice, let alone a third time this week.
“I don’t want to cry when I talk about him,” Liz said of Mick. “I just want to praise him. He grew up with nothing. He was the youngest child of five. Hand-me-down clothes. He had a single mum from two years of age. We’ve have had some grief in our family, but there’s no point wallowing in it. It’s not going to bring anyone back. Mick has been brave. He was still a boy when Sean died. He was a man when Peter passed away. He’s courageous.”
To lose two sons was a tragedy. When you lose three? How many times can the human heart break into a million pieces? Liz grabbed a handful of tissues and recalled the night she knocked on Mick’s door to tell him about Peter. It’s as good an anecdote as you’ll ever hear about him.
“Mick was looking at me and saying, ‘What’s wrong, Mum? Are you OK? What’s happened? I couldn’t stop shaking,” Liz said. “I was a complete mess. Mick and Peter had caught up before we went to Hawaii. Peter had told him, ‘I’m so proud of you, mate.’ Mick had to know what happened. He would have looked at his phone, someone at the beach would have said something … I didn’t want him to find out like that. I just stood there and told Mick that Peter had died. I was an absolute wreck. And you know what that beautiful man said to me? He said, ‘Sit down, Mum, and try to relax. I’ll go and make you a cup of coffee.’ Selflessness is such a beautiful thing, don’t you think?
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