Hall of Famer today, Prime Minister tomorrow.
The proud surfing nation, Australia, will click on its televisions tonight, find the Australian Surfing Awards program and ready the box of tissues as favorite son Mick Fanning is inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame.
Fanning will join the likes of Jodie Cooper (Class of ’20), Mark Richards (Class of ’85) and Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew (Class of ’87) and beat stablemate Joel Parkinson to the high honor.
He won three Association of Surfing Professionals World Championships (2007, 2009, 2013). Unfortunately, I can only recall two taglines: “Micktory” and “lighting strikes twice” but I think “Micktory” was actually his second 2009 tagline so was it “lightning strikes thrice?”
What was the first one called?
“Lightning strikes?”
While you’re thinking, the great Nick Carroll, Australian Surfing Awards’ curator, said, “Public or private, there’s the sense that Mick Fanning, despite his renowned game face and rock-hard attitude in competition, is an open book. What you see is what you get, and that might be a quality Australians love in a person more than anything.”
Did you know that you can buy a “Micktory” hat for $79.99 on Ebay right now?
The product description reads, “MICKTORY Mick Fanning ASP WORLD CHAMPION 2009 Rip Curl Trucker Hat COLLECTIBLE ITEM. Condition is Pre-owned and good.”
You can see here (as modeled by surf journalist Tim Baker).
A fine look for any occasion.
Quite fitting Nick Carroll a living example of everything that was fucked in the 1980s pro surfing affiliated world , comments on what hopefully is the last dregs of his per groups legacy , Mick no style shit attitude Fanning.
You make it sound like some type of Aussie board riders club or something, no outside views, keep riding the same board over and over again, don’t let anyone else in, is that what BG is about, your own private little club.
P.S.
Maybe you should appreciate the fact that somebody on this website is not a clone and actually has an opinion of their own and that they have enough guts to stick to it even though you may not agree with it.
IMO this the least clone site around … and of course you contribute to that, but it doesn’t make you right or entertaining
Bloviating mush brain from too much spirits
Is there a Fucking Jew hat for sale?
FFSC!
I reckon some sort of diplomatic position would be right up Eugene’s alley.
Trade Attache in Pyongyang?
“Public or private, there’s the sense that Mick Fanning, despite his
renowned game face and rock-hard attitude in competition, is an open
book. What you see is what you get, and that might be a quality
Australians love in a person more than anything.”Fuck he’s shit. tries so fucking hard. tommy’s lil bro.
That was sort of like your first world title when you think about it.
Fanning the Fire
my eyes won’t un-dry
Have you tried rubbing cat litter into them?
Dunno what it’s like these days with no actual surf mags around anymore, though traditionally, surf journalists have always been a pack of groupies mainly, there to offer a flattering comment to shmooze the surfers and their sponsors to get advertising dollars and party invites.
Pack of wankers really who used to hold a lot of the cards over a lot of people’s mag exposure and potential sponsorship earnings depending on who they liked and which parties they all went to.
Maybe it’s no longer like that with all the online stuff and the loss of the power of print, but they’re still the same hangers-on’ers and groupie type characters.
P.S.
Longtom is an obvious exception though, with his excellent contest reports.
P.P.S.
Chas is more shark sensationalist than surf journalist so he’s possibly exempt too…
why do you so despair packs of wankering groupies tho?!?!?!?! were this to be the 70s and you a budding rockstar, methinks your ditherings on wankering groupies would be less
Ahh, the 70’s…….before crack, aids, and A Flock of Seagulls.
If you really crank that song it’s quite epic
And quite a decent guitar solo at a time when guitars were considered passé!
agreed
I had you more as a Bronski Beat or Buran Buran guy ? I personally had a weakness for Spandau Ballet and Ultravox especially now that my hair is fading to grey .
https://youtu.be/UMPC8QJF6sI
I appreciate the queer 80s stuff much more these days
Hey you hush your mouth. The one song they had was good.
walking down the avenue, i never thought i meet a girl like you
Just like to whinge about anything to do with the surf media now that what used to be the ‘letters to the editor’ section in mags (which was severely limited by page space and editor preference) has turned into this free-for-all on the internet…
Letters to the editor were great fun. I still remember some classics from Tracks in the 1980s. Then when Tim Baker and Derek were editing ASL in the 1990s there were a ton of prizes for “Letter of the Month”, even surfboards! The surf industry must have been rolling in dough in those days.
Shane Stedman was giving away Spyder surfboards for ASL “Letter of the Month” winners for a while there.
I once somehow won 1200 francs riding the world’s worst purple Spyder in a contest in Brittany . I can honestly say it was totally unsurfable and the biggest piece of shit I ever rode since the $20 dollar Shane Popout I found on the trading post when I was 9 in 1974 ….. no wonder they were giving them away .
And I couldn’t for the life of me ride that Spyder board I won for ASL Letter of the Month in 1993! Haha, no doubt Shane has shaped better boards in his day.
It was 97 and the DHD I had absolutely hammered for a whole French Summer broke in half a week before the contest … My mate had one board left in stock ….. THE spyder from Hell ….. I really thought in less than a month that I must be getting too old and can’t surf anymore but got another DHD the first day back in Oz and realized for once
IT WAS THE FAULT OF THE FUCKING SPYDER
I do have to be careful because at the time there were Spyders and Spiders.
The great South African Shaper Spider Murphy ( Safari Surfboards ) did definitely not make the SPYDER .
I remember the rage felt by one and all , when an invented character , Brian Westlake , sent a letter to tracks claiming “ Midnight Oil Hates a Rage “
Haha, can totally picture you as a writer of letters to Tracks, Bicko!
Or can we call you Brian?
I would have loved to have the courage . I swallowed every single letter of every single word , voraciously, from 1978 till 1990 …..before reading magazines from all over the world from 93 till today but …. Unlike today’s children who can’t shut up …. I thought it was probably better to listen and participate ,for 40 something years , before I would comment on the state of modern surfing in 2017 .
I’m surprised to hear that. You’ve a real way with words. Thought you’d been doing it for ages.
I some how managed a grade 1 in year 10 in English without having read a book ( besides the surf mags ) but didn’t really start to read , the ancient and modern classics , until things turned to shit in my mid 20s ( a premature mid life crisis )which left me looking for answers to the big question…. to be or not to be ? … and then I somehow ended up studying French History and Literature at the University of Bordeaux and obliged to learn French , which eventually , after playing happily , the role of lost boy on the sand banks and in the bars for 20 years in a tiny coastal village just north of Lacanau , Led me to my German wife and was obliged again to learn yet another language which made me finally more comfortable to write things down in English about a subject I have been actively studying since I was 8 .
In the 80s , you had to be sponsored by a company who paid for advertising in the magazine to get a photo or an article run in that magazine ….so it was a closed circle of journalists , photographers and surf industry owners who decided who was sponsored and who was not …
Looking at today’s surfing websites all over the world , nothing has changed .
It amazes me how well documented chas’ most critical moments have been. Always someone with a camera to get the shot. I am of the opinion Chas deserves much of the vitriol he receives but I prefer ashtons ring adorned open handed slaps to micks approach.
And now we find ourselves at the crossroads where anti-depressive meets anti-semitic
I’ve studied/laughed at this pic so many times. So much happening.
The surly Baker, whose face seems to be asking, “whaddaya gonna do about this yank journo Micko”? The inquisitive and earnest while stirring and “explaining” Smith. The “oh yeah maigghhht, you sure about that, I heard otherwise” look on Eugene’s face. The chick in cut off denim shorts nervously necking the life out of an undisclosed can of alochopop and side eyeing the convo – acutely aware “mick was gonna fucken smash that guy, heard him say it”. and old bowl cut in the background, yakking up his sponno deals and trying to secure a photog (or bags?) for the next Ments trip.
Oil painting worthy.
it’s a photo fraught with historical conjecture
Mazel Tov!
It’s a sad state of affairs, when surfers get more teary-eyed (stoked) about a person– than a wave.
P.S.
and can you really
blame anybody from being ‘turned off-ed’ to pro surfing after looking at that above top picture, almost a perfect example of everything that’s wrong with pro surfing.
The ego is a dead-end.
Do you feed your ego by attempting to lecture everyone here?
I know I do.
I will never use
“I” in a Haiku again
I think I blew it…
Well, never really thought about it, but no, I don’t think so.
I just want to voice my point of view, like everyone else here I guess.
But forces greater than me (neg) may not agree.
But if everyone thought the same, the world would be a pretty boring place.
Like riding the same wave in a wave tank, over and over again, it’s always the same, no variety, you’d probably get sick and tired of it pretty quickly.
Sure but some waves bring cheer to your day while others, no matter how long you stop and stare, make you want to nek yourself
Your ego is not your amigo.
That should be on a shirt.
A Waterproof Polo maybe?
This self-flagellation you do here gets quite, ummm. Let’s be honest, stupid at times Freerider.
Have you considered keeping it closer to home with just a whip, drawn curtains and the bible open on your favourite passage?
I think he should go with self-immolation
I know that photo is beachgrit canon but have never heard the story behind it. It must be here somewhere?
https://stabmag.com/news/st…
Flabellation Frogmarch Stupefaction
3 x FFF or 3 x KKK , ah otty … FFS if you know about Eugene that’s called an open book……
Mich who? outside of oz, does anyone know who he is?
I think he was one of Jebus’ apostles or something.
He belongs to an elite group in Men’s Pro Surfing after Slater 11 and the magnificent MR’s four , who won 3 world titles … Here they are
Tom Curren
Andy Irons
Mick Fanning
Ok, who are the other dudes?
Andy Irons and some bloke from Santa Barbara named Tom ….
FFS Nick Carroll, how can you say Mick is an open book and what you see is what you get when the guy’s got a self-proclaimed alter-ego? At any given moment, you could either be getting Eugene or Mick. And supposedly now there’s a third alter-ego. Open book? What you see is what you get? Then there’s the book of Mick that Chas experienced. I think that book was turned to the page beginning the Chapter “You Know, Jews Aren’t As Hard To Hate As You’d Think”.
He forgot to say the book in question is Mein Kampf