Few days ago one of the big legends of surf, the australian Mick Fanning, announced his retirement from competitions.
He is going to take part only to the first 2 events of this year, Quicksilver Pro Gold Coast and Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach that will be his very last competitions of his career.
In the interviews he explains that he has just lost motivation in competing “day-in day-out” and he feels that he can’t give his 100% anymore. He adds that the fire, the passion for surfing still burns in him but it’s time to follow other paths for it.
He decided to finish his career with the event Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach because everything started from there. So let’s havean overview about this great surf champion.
H/T:dailytelegraph.com.au
Michael Eugene “Mick” Fanning was born in Penrith, Australia in 1981. In his career he won 3 times the world championship, in 2007, 2009 and 2013.
He started to surf when he was 5 years old and after moving to another city, he practiced with 2 big names like Joel Parkinson and Nat West. His life is full of victories, adventures and amazing experiences all around the world but not only this. There were also two big losses in his life during this time. In 1998 he lost his brother Sean by a car accident and lost also the other brother in 2015, passed away while he was sleeping.
Mick Fanning is famous not just for his great career, but also because of a unique episode happened 3 years ago. In 2015 during the final of the world tour held Jeffreys Bay, South Africa, he was attacked by a shark and fortunately didn’t report any injury. It was the first time that a shark attack was registered during a surf competition.
H/T: news.com.au
Mick Fanning says that the shark encounter has absolutely nothing to do with his retirement decision and didn’t influence it.
In 2017 he was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for services to surfing. Mick Fanning seems to be not so sad about his decision. He said that his career was a roller coaster and looking back to the past he has amazing memories that he will keep forever in his heart, but now it’s time for him to dedicate to his passion in other ways, following other paths. So don’t miss the upcoming Quicksilver Pro Gold Coast (14th March – 25th March) and Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach (28th March- 8th April, dates not confirmed yet), the last competions and last opportunities to see this great champion in action!