It was this blend of power and speed that put Mick over his bestie, Parko. Photo: ASP | Cestari
Quite simply, it doesn’t get any better than that. In a season that’s been so-so on the wave front, the final day of the J-Bay Open was exactly what the ASP needed. It was PUMPING – like, pumping, pumping – and fittingly it was the cream of the Coolangatta point belt that rose to the top.
Flawless though it was, J-Bay wasn’t easy to surf. Furthermore, with the outlawing of the use of jet skis (J-Bay has been declared a marine park), surfers were at the mercy of a relentless ocean. It was no surprise then that the consistency and preternatural point break understanding of Fanning and Parko proved the difference.
Fanning has been lampooned by certain sections of the surfing community for his robotic style and his prioritising of function over style and flare. But here, at a wave that commands good surfing, it was exactly those characteristics that set him apart. The training, the fitness, the well-oiled machine that is Mick Fanning was on show from the get-go as he clambered over the rocks to start Round Five against Freddy P and stormed up the beach triathlon-style to jump off at the keyhole.
Strategy was all important and while there might have been less waves caught without the use of jet skis, how good was it to see these guys forced to draw on every bit of ocean knowledge in the victory-at-sea conditions? Clambering across the rocks, beach sprints and diving out the bottom of eight footers to avoid being washed too far down the point is not something you get to see the world’s best do very often in real time.
You might also have noticed how Mick Fanning seemed to be able to dial up inside barrels at will on the final day, where others could do nothing but cutbacks. This is what you get when you spend your entire life getting to know how long walls of water wrap around a point. It’s a sixth sense that only a handful of surfers on tour perhaps, and it allows you to identify and anticipate which endless line of water is the one you should go and which one is going to go square and pit along the inside. Fanning has it, Parko has it, and as we saw with Tom Curren’s perfect ten in his heritage heat with Occy prior to the finals, he too has it.
It looked easy for Fanning at times, but the ability to hook turns, roll down bowling sections and kick-stall up and under falling lips in perfect synchronicity with the wave is anything but. Even past winners haven’t managed a display of style and grace comparable to what Fanning displayed yesterday. The conditions were eerily similar to what erupted at Lennox Point back in 2001, captured in Fanning’s biopic of that year, Blowing Up. His timing and ability to blend speed lines and turns so seamlessly has been there a while now, but even so, Joel Parkinson is arguably as good if not better than Mick when it comes to J-Bay.
Both had won the event twice prior to yesterday, and as they prepared for the final, the surfing world was left with that tantalizing prospect of two of the best point break specialists of all time in some of the best waves ever seen in a contest there. At stake were ultimate bragging rights for the pair. Parko looked unstoppable up until the hooter sounded for the final. And had he not gotten clamped on that opening barrel, the outcome might have been a different story. But he lost. Was soundly beaten in the end, in fact. And that’s gonna hurt Parko. It’s gonna hurt bad. It’s no secret that Mick and Joel share one of the fiercest rivalries in surfing. They’re best friends, sure, but during those early years when Mick had titles and Joel didn’t, their relationship became strained.
More recently, J-Bay had been Parko’s happy place, but Fanning shat all over that – dancing around falling sections, stabbing his board under cascading lips, and soaring high and long across the face like a majestic sea bird. It was consistent from Fanning, alright. Consistently jaw dropping. He fired on all cylinders. So did J-Bay. It was good to be a surf fan.
Also see Jed Smith’s 5 Monumental Observations from the Jeffreys Bay Open.
