Mick Fanning, Liz Fanning and Ed Fanning, RIP.
Mick Fanning and brother Ed with mum Liz. | Photo: ASP

Unimaginable tragedy as Mick Fanning loses third brother

Derek Rielly

By

RIP Ed Fanning, Peter Fanning, Sean Fanning.

Family and friends are rallying around the three-time world surfing champ Mick Fanning tonight after the death of his last surviving brother Ed who was reportedly working at a surf camp in Madagascar.

Ed’s best mate, Coolangatta bodyboarder Stevie Maher, was the first to publicly announce his passing, writing on Facebook.

“Firstly I want to send my condolences to the Fanning family … mum Liz, dad John, sister Rachel and brother Mick.

“My heart is broken to hear the passing of my best mate. I enjoyed and had so many amazing times with you Eddie.You were in my wedding party, had so many epic times together in Indo and we were just best mates.”

Mick Fanning and brother Ed Fanning.
Mick Fanning, right, and brother Ed Fanning, RIP.

No details on the cause of the tragedy have been released. 

Nine years ago, and on the eve of a dramatic world title showdown at Pipeline, Mick Fanning received news that his older brother Peter, a daddy to three who had been suffering from a “serious hyperthyroid disease” had died in his sleep.

Peter Mel comforts Mick Fanning in 2015.
Peter Mel comforts Mick Fanning in 2015.

In 1998, Mick’s twenty-year-old brother Sean, along with another talented local surfer Joel Green, was killed in a car accident. Mick Fanning was seventeen.

From the SMH’s Will Swanton in 2008,

Four youths were in a car on the Gold Coast on August 14, 1998. Control of the vehicle was lost. There was the panic-stricken acceleration and braking of the driver, gasps of disbelief from all four passengers, the turning of the night from fun to something more sinister. There was the screeching of tyres and a collision – an almighty collision. Two passengers were in the back of the car and they both died. One of them was Joel Green. The other was Sean Fanning.

Nobody on the Gold Coast saw Mick Fanning for a while after that. Not the real Mick Fanning. Mick was offered a ride in the car that killed Sean. He declined in favour of walking. He had imagined the future. He had not imagined this.

They were so close,” their mother Liz Osborne says. Her eyes drift. “We called them ‘the little ones’. They did everything together.” Liz is a warm and lovely woman. She has an open face and curly hair. She is the type of person who will treat a stranger as though she’s known them all her life. “I hope the universe shines on him,” she says of Mick. “He’s a decent young man. He deserves it so much.”

Open Thread: Comment Live on Day One of the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach!

Chas Smith

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All eyez on Kelly Slater's future baby (and the ghost of Chicken Pip).

Vulnerable adult learner issues grave warning to those considering the surfing life!

Chas Smith

By

A wild tale of murder and woe.

The swell of Covid, and post Covid (if we can dare imagine we are through the worst pandemic the world has ever seen including, but not limited to, The Black Death) surf adopters continues to stagger lineups around the world. Outdoors, naturally socially distanced, healthy and also exuding a vibe to others.

The perfect activity.

Though, as Poison fans knows, every rose has its thorn and might the surfing life actually be an ouchiest of all options?

A 42-year-old vulnerable adult learner is very much sounding the alarm bells in a new essay The Old Man and the Sea which declares, “Solidly middle-aged, author Santi Elijah Holley decided to learn how to surf. What could go wrong?”

Our guide begins thusly:

When I finally come up for air—after spinning, flipping, somersaulting, and twisting under the waves for what seems like an eternity—I spit out a mouthful of ocean water and wonder what compelled me, at age 42, to take up surfing. I’m not an especially athletic person; these days, even a leisurely walk around my neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles causes my knees to ache. I used to be more active. As a teenager, I skied and skateboarded and clambered over large rocks and rode a bicycle for pleasure. But in adulthood, I spend most of my time sitting at my desk, staring at a screen, and feeling my body atrophy bit by bit. Deciding to start surfing was an impulsive decision, a desperate resolve to feel alive, a raging against the dying of the light. I wanted to know I was still capable of trying new activities, enjoying new hobbies, and learning new skills that served no practical or professional purpose, that were purely for personal amusement. A surfboard, at any rate, isn’t the worst purchase one can make during a midlife crisis. It could’ve been a Harley-Davidson. Or hair plugs.

He then realizes he needs a surfing lesson and takes one in Santa Monica with three Korean girls as classmates. The piece goes behind the paywall, at this point, but I have to imagine the “What could go wrong?” bit was directly answered. He was ripped off by the surf instructor, made fun of by an onlooker who had begun surfing last year and thus considered himself a local, sent home in such a cloud of self-doubt and timidity that his partner immediately recognized and publicly shamed him later that night when the couple dined with friends at Bub & Grandmas.

When they got home, she twisted the knife, further, telling him he wasn’t a man while he was down trying to fix the dryer by himself instead of calling for help. He became so unsettled that he hit her in the head with a hammer, killing her. The local police got involved while trying to solve another crime leaving our adult learner in a high state of agitation while trying to cover his tracks.

Eventually, guilt and justice, plus his bumbling inactivity, catch up and all is admitted with surfing fingered as cause.

The moral?

If you don’t surf, don’t start.

And, now, without further ado…

Erik Logan writes Substack confessional.
"When I made the pivot, I remember people saying, “You’ve done it! You’ve married your passion with your profession!” The accolades were correct - I had done it. It was a euphoric feeling, frankly not planned nor expected, but all felt divine and karmic simultaneously." – Erik Logan.

Sacked WSL chief Erik Logan reveals (almost) all in Substack confessional!

Derek Rielly

By

Stroke, heart surgery, divorce, losing his WSL job and surprise pivot from surfing and into tennis!

To know the former WSL boss Erik Logan, as they say, was to love him. Sparkling eyes that milked your essence, a body that made any man or woman’s cheeks flame and all wrapped in the calming assurance of a man who knew how to set limits. 

Thoroughly intoxicating.

It came as a terrific surprise, nine months ago, therefore, when Erik Logan was disappeared by the WSL mid-event at the Vivo Rio Pro, no reason given, only a curtly worded press release that neither thanked nor exalted their high-profile CEO.

“Today, the World Surf League (WSL) announced that CEO Erik Logan has departed the company, effective immediately.”

Silence ensued as per the WSL’s policy regarding transparency, ie none, despite Logan’s almost five-year reign as head of pro surfing, which took in the pivot to a one-day world champ playoff, a mid-year tour cut, as well as failed ventures including The Ultimate Surfer and WSL Studios.

As Chas Smith reported following the disappearance,

The lack of any information, whatsoever, from the World Surf League in the aftermath, alongside the “flabbergasting” lack of knowledge by those close to the levers of power, suggested an absolutely ruthless NDA.

A championship tour surfer had told me, directly, that Logan had made certain surfers “feel uncomfortable” with his behavior and by asking them to one-on-one dinners or drinks. He also, it was said, became “erratic” when he drank. The assertion of both troublesome requests and over-indulgent drinking was corroborated by at least two others, both with direct experience.

“He was getting away with it for a while,” another with first hand experience told me. “Lots of reports the last few events that he’s been drunk and making inappropriate comments to the women.”

Putting pieces together, it suggests the sort of firing that would deliver no praise and require an ironclad NDA. One almost certainly concerning personal conduct and needing the head of human resources and the head of legal to take over at a moment’s notice.

One that forced him to “fly home immediately,” according to one source, directly following his ouster.

There was excitement today when Erik Logan posted a lengthy screed on his Substack detailing his cataclysmic descent from 42-year-old beginner surfer, loving everything surf, to architect of the entire sport with all its ensuring baggage. 

Erik Logan writes, 

We’ve all been told, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Or maybe, “Follow your passion; the money will follow you.” There are countless variations on this theme.  Throughout my career, I let this idea guide my professional choices, and tried to make  my job my passion.  The reality was that I was passionate about my work, but it was never my burning passion.    Four years ago, I took a passion that I had discovered and made it my job and I can now say I’m not 100% sure this cliche is the best advice, at least for me.

There was an eroding and flattening of my love for surfing. It wasn’t sudden; bits and pieces of joy chipped away here and there until the love was broken and the passion was gone.  I would think back to those early moments of feeling that this job would be so great for me; and that being on the ‘inside of surfing’ and getting deeper into this world I loved would unlock more ways to deepen my passion and engage my business brain.  I was wrong again. 

The reality is that when my passion became my job, those lines became blurred.  What once was a sanctuary, where anonymity was nearly assured with many of us wearing identical black wetsuits on our boards,  not caring at all what anyone did outside of the ocean, suddenly became a place I didn’t want to be. People constantly approached me, wanting to talk about surfing and the WSL and give their unsolicited opinions of the sport or the company (good and bad).   I would always take the time to talk with them and listen, thank them for the conversation, and try to be as present and thoughtful as possible.  To be honest, there were many times that it felt good; my ego loved it, and even when the conversations got heated, I still loved the debate.  So, on the one hand, I was feeling good on the ego level; on the other, my love for surfing and passion were eroding – catching fewer and fewer waves.  

The erosion continued. 

I used to have fun and get up at 4:30 and get to the water at first light, but no longer. What was clear to me was that I was not having fun surfing anymore.  The passion was gone.  I couldn’t find it anywhere. It was gone as fast as it overcame me.  And then, in late June of 2023, I was no longer working – passion and profession both gone.  

Does confession of events that created his downfall follow? (No!) But read here! 

Biolos (right) poking Merrick (left).
Biolos (right) poking Merrick (left).

Blood Feud: Lost goes for throat of arch-rival Channel Islands!

Chas Smith

By

An old fashioned surfboard snipe!

There was a time, a few decades back, when surfers would identify with a surf brand. You wore Quiksilver or Billabong, used Sticky Bumps or Sex Wax, read Surfing or Surfer (in America) Surfing Life or Surfing World or Tracks (Australia) and rode Lost or Channel Islands. Or at least that’s the way it felt to me in my Coos Bay, Oregon bedroom.

In my provincial mind, which tribe a surfer belonged to mattered as much as anything and I would mentally sneer at those on the other “team.” Thankfully, and reprising my childhood fantasy, Lost’s Matt Biolos went directly for the throat of arch-rival Channel Islands, today, in a wicked Instagram post.

Featuring righteous shredder “Rasta” Robbie McCormick on a Ripper model, Biolos writes, “Rasta Robb don’t need no stink’n ‘small wave surfers therapy sessions.’ He just packs another load, grabs his Ripper, paddles out and drops airs on the whiners heads.”

Ouch.

Channel Islands’ recent Dane Reynolds n gang promotional video showcasing The Dumpster Diver 2 model was wildly well-received in the community. It featured shaper Britt Merrick and various other team riders in a faux support group before devolving into a wild melee.

While praised in certain circles as “the funniest skit since Doped Youth,” Team Lost certainly thought it was lame and tacky. The Robb diss track shoved right into the hexagon’s grill.

Provincially-minded surf watchers are, currently, holding breaths and waiting if Channel Islands will retaliate.

Which team are you?

Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms
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