Mick fanning autobiography

Candid, self-deprecating, and absolutely unique, professional surfer Mick Fanning reveals his life story while imparting plenty of practical surfing tips.
Mik tells his life story candidly - in turns funny, sensitive, thoughtful, self-deprecating - while providing intimate insights into personal lessons gained.
I was born in the Western Suburbs of Sydney in town called Penrith, the youngest of five kids.

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Review: Surf for Your Life by Mick Fanning

Surf for Your Life draws a line in the sand for Mick Fanning. It’s an autobiography detailing how the current ASP World Champion surfer arrived at where he was in his life and career at the time of writing as well as a life manual, providing a detailed guide as to how you can apply some of Mick’s wisdom to your own surfing – and life.

A few weeks ago I chatted to Tim Baker, the co-author, about working with Mick and he described how lucid, coherent and detailed Mick’s own writing is. It’s a far cry from the stereotypical surfer-dude who might be able to bust an air but can’t spell ‘manoeuvre’ (thanks Microsoft Word for helping me with that).

As a reader you really get a sense of Mick’s true character shining through the book and, refreshingly, it lacks the narcissism and ego one might expect from a world champion surfer. In fact, Mick is incredibly humble and seems astonished by his own achievements despite his super-human tenacity, motivation and talent.

Having been dealt a comparatively fairly lousy hand Mick overcame adversity and

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Mick Fanning

MY STORY

I was born in the Western Suburbs of Sydney in town called Penrith, the youngest of five kids.

The beach was a two hour drive away. Our mum would load us into her little red bomb, radio blasting with old rock songs, and drive us down the coast. We didn’t have much but we didn’t need much, we had each other and that was plenty. With three older brothers competition was a part of life when we were kids. We battled for for everything: food, toys, and eventually waves. I think that’s where my competitive nature comes from.

My parents separated when I was three and we moved north. Hard times made a little easier because we were living on the coast. My three big brothers started surfing and, as little annoying siblings tend to do, I followed them. Life was great and got even better when Mum took a job on the Gold Coast. I started competing in junior events and getting results. Pretty soon sponsorship contracts began coming my way and becoming a pro surfer became the dream.

My older brother Sean had the same goals and it bound us. We dreamed of making the

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An inspirational tale of overcoming the odds to become world champ Mick Fanning might only be 28 but he already knows how a lot of things feel that most of us never will. How does it feel to lose a brother? Win a world title? Rip your hamstring muscle clean off the bone? Weave through a zippering Superbank barrel for 20 or 30 seconds or paddle over the ledge at places like Pipeline and Teahupo? Have scoliosis so bad you can't get off the floor? Address the NSW state of origin team before a match, bowl to Matty Hayden and have Dave Warner belt you for consecutive sixes? Walk into the bar of a Brasilian hotel dressed only in a bikini to make your mates laugh, only to find your mates have left, and there is only a puzzled bartender staring blankly at you? You'll notice that not all these experiences fall neatly on one side of the ledger of good or bad. Mick's journey so far has definitely been a mixed bag, but it is the extremes of that journey that make him so interesting, and his readiness to learn from each experience and use it as fuel to drive him on that might provide lessons f