Lucky buyer gets bargain of the year!

Real estate pundits, including this one, have been left with faces smeared with egg after the surf-and-skate beach shack of Mick Fanning failed to hit four million dollars overnight despite a pre-auction frenzy. 

Realtor Emisha Canning wasn’t quite as bullish as your pals here at BeachGrit and said the pre-auction fever had resulted in a “multiple offer situation” with the joint being sold for an undisclosed price, although it was under four mill.

“The interest in this property had been really high and had ramped up in those final days before the auction, but there were a number of buyers who had conditional interest and the decision was made to give all buyers the opportunity to put their best foot forward,” Canning said, using a realtor dialect unfamiliar to most.

Fanning, a three-time world champ and survivor of a Great White encounter, bought the house near Coolangatta airport and four hundred yards from the Gold Coast’s fifth best point three years ago for what seemed at the time to be a wildly insane three million dollars.

Three mill for a house a fifteen-minute walk from the beach, and you gotta cross the highway, and with big silver birds flying over it, the whine of their big CFM turbo-fan engines filling the air?

The house at 5 Farrell Drive, Tugun, backs onto the famous bird sanctuary there, covers 12,00 square feet of dirt, has a pool and a sauna and was notable for the half-pipe in the living room. 

Fanning threw a few buckets of white paint over the natural wood stain and waited until the Capital Gains Tax exemption period had been covered before selling. 

It sure looks better on the real estate pages than Google Earth. See below.

Yesterday, it was revealed Fanning had thrown his media profile and some cash into the $300 million redevelopment of the old Parkwood Village, now renamed the The Palm Valley Gold Coast Resort, and which features an Endless Surf wave pool, the same tank that just opened in Munich.

“It’s sad to see such a prestigious event being run by kooks,” says JOB.

Yesterday came the bombshell news that the carrot-topped king of Pipeline Jamie O’Brien wouldn’t be invited to this year’s Vans Pipe Masters.

“It’s shocking to see how, in such a short time, Vans has nearly ruined what it means to be a Pipeline Master,” wrote Josh Moniz.

“The way this event has been handled in recent years, since Vans bought the rights to it, feels disrespectful to one of the most iconic waves and events in the history of surfing—right here at OUR home in Hawaii. When I heard that JAMIE was given an ALTERNATE spot in the event, that’s when I felt something has to be said. How can you leave out arguably the greatest Pipeline surfer of all time?”

Jamie O, who is forty-one, says he was told by organisers that he was too old to be invited to the event. In a post to his 1.3 million fans, he wrote:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jamie O’Brien (@whoisjob)

“Growing up, I was told to “let your surfing do the talking,” but I guess that’s not enough anymore. For nearly 30 years, I’ve dedicated myself to Pipeline—winning every event, building my dream home here, and making Pipeline my life.

“Last week, I realized I didn’t get a Pipe Masters invite. When I asked why, I was told I’m ‘too old and ‘didn’t make the cut.’

“Instead, I’m on the alternate list with a ‘don’t worry, you’ll probably get in.’

“Looking at the current invite list, it’s not only me that should be on there. There are so many other surfers who didn’t receive their invites and they deserve to be on that list.

“To say I’m upset and disrespected is an understatement. It’s sad to see such a prestigious event being run by kooks who clearly don’t understand the reality of the lineup at Pipeline.”

Are you sad JOB not in Pipe Masters?

Or at this point, y’don’t give two fucks about the disintegration of what used to be the world’s most prestigious surfing event?

"It was really exciting to catch 150 waves in four hours. That was out of this world. Surfers will travel anywhere to catch a wave."

The three-time world surf champ Mick Fanning, whose real estate, beer and wellness investments can be counted in the tens of millions, has thrown his name and and an undisclosed investment into a $300 mill wave pool and golf resort on Queensland’s Gold Coast, the biggest tourism development there in over forty years.

Developers are gonna turn the old Parkwood Village into the The Palm Valley Gold Coast Resort, dressing the landscape in an upgraded 18-hole golf course, a brewery, two hundred apartments and a wave pool featuring Endless Surf tech, the same tank that just opened in Munich.

The development is at the far northern end of the Gold Coast in the otherwise dreary suburb of Parkwood, back off the ocean and inland from down-at-heel Labrador, which is also the home of Peter Drouyn.

The managing director is the former golf pro Luke Altschwager.

Mick Fanning, said he was made an offer too good to refuse, as they say, by Altschwager, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the other Australian wave pool developer Andrew Ross.

“Luke is from the golfing world and knows how to do the hospitality side. He wanted some credible people on the surfing side,” Fanning told The Australian Financial Review.

Fanning had a swing at the Munich pool recently and said, “The [tech] is probably the most user-friendly and that it just doesn’t stop it, just wave after wave. It was really exciting to catch 150 waves in four hours. That was out of this world. Surfers will travel anywhere to catch a wave. We jump on boats, we chart tiny, dodgy planes and sleep in the dirt just to get a good wave.”

The pool is gonna be the first thing built, followed by the upgrade of the golf course then the brewery, followed by the apartments.

Money is being raised now for the build.

Mick Fanning joins his randy pal Paul Fisher aka DJ FISHER in the big development game reshaping the Gold Coast.

Fisher recently revealed his plans for a gorgeous nine-storey tower comprising six three bedders and a four-bed penthouse with a rooftop terrace. Two houses, including a 1950’s beach shack, will be demolished for the build. 

Click here to see Fanning and co’s website!