A shock third round exit by good friend Joel Parkinson has handed Mick Fanning his second world championship crown – and claims to being one of Australia’s greatest ever surfers.
The Tweed Heads local locked in the 2009 title at Pipeline, Hawaii on Sunday (AEDT) when Parkinson was ousted during his first surf of the competition against Gavin Gillette, a little known Hawaiian rated outside the top 100 surfers in the world.
In an emotional moment the two embraced in the water, the pair crossing paths as Parkinson exited his heat and Fanning prepared for his.
A gobsmacked Fanning couldn’t get up for his round four encounter, losing out to another fellow Australian in Dean Morrison, but it mattered little as the sequel to his 2007 triumph was already secure.
“We just sort of sat there and hugged and chatted about what’s happened over the last few days and how nervous we both were,” Fanning said of his moments with Parkinson.
“It was hard to watch what happened to him this year. He had such a stranglehold on the tour and then he had that ankle injury, so as a friend it was hard to watch that.
“If I wasn’t in the race I would have been gunning for Joel for sure.”
Fanning becomes just the fourth Australian man to take out multiple titles since the ASP Tour began in 1976 and while two crowns shy of four-time winner Mark Richards can lay claim to being one of the best wave riders of the last three decades.
While Fanning was always in the box seat to take the title going into the last event of the year, Parkinson’s early exit would have been a body blow after having won the non-tour event in Sunset just a week ago and finishing championship runner-up in 2002 and 2004.
After dominating the first half of the tour with three event wins from five the season unravelled for the 28-year-old as injury and poor form played their part.
Nine-time world champion Kelly Slater suggested consistency was something of a chink in Parkinson’s armour.
“Joel has proven to be hot at some point every single year but not the whole year,” Slater said.
“So it happened and a few of us saw that opening but Mick was the only one who could do something about it.”
Starting in Trestles, California Fanning started a sublime run of surfing, taking out three of four events to wrest control of the title before the Pipeline Masters decider.
In many ways it was sweeter than his breakthrough crown of two years ago.
What followed was a difficult 2008 where heightened media attention, injury and indifferent surfing which saw him finish eighth that year.
“You can’t go back in life but this one has been really amazing, I’ve really enjoyed it and I’m just lucky to have the people around me that I do,” said Fanning who was flanked by his mother Liz and wife Karissa.
“I did have some hang-ups from 2008 but I just learnt to deal with that stuff.”
Parkinson is still in contention to take out the Triple Crown as the best overall surfer from the three Hawaiian events but American CJ Hobgood could also snatch that away from him with a good performance on Monday (AEDT).
Australians Morrison, Bede Durbidge and Taj Burrow are still in the mix to win the Pipeline event after moving into the last eight while veteran Slater eyes his seventh title at the famous break.
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