down time Surfer
mick fanning He’s lost none of his star power since retiring but surfing legend Mick Fanning is basking in a life less scheduled
Story carli philips Photography corey wilson
36 J UN E 2019 WISH
lives just five minutes from the airport. It may well be the most prosaic thing about the three-time World Champion they call White Lighting – except that when you religiously follow weather forecasts, dropping everything to catch a wave in, say, Ireland or Morocco at a moment’s notice the proximity of a plane becomes all the more pertinent. “I’ll sit there and watch maps and leave it to the very last minute to go to a destination and get a swell. I love the anticipation; I’m always ready and prepared,” Fanning, who turns 38 this month, tells WISH from the driver’s seat of the new Mercedes-Benz X-Class – for which he is an ambassador – on a drive through the NSW hinterland. Until his retirement from the sport in April last year, impromptu travel was a luxury rarely afforded to Fanning. He had been on the professional circuit for more than two decades and a gruelling schedule had him away from home for months at a time. His official departure from surfing made worldwide headlines, but there had been murmurings back in 2016 when he took a “gap year” after his split with then wife Karissa Dalton. With limited commitments, he took some “awesome trips”, including fishing in Alaska and surfing under the Northern Lights. But it was four hours in a carpark waiting for his heat at the Margaret River Pro that sealed the deal. “I was just sitting there, wondering, what am I doing here?” he says. “There was so much fun I still wanted to have. I made the decision that day: I’m done. I had got W I S H JU N E 2019 37