MICK FANNING IS TRAINING AUSTRALIA’S TOP GROMS

Mick Fanning has won three World Titles. He’s currently ranked number two in the world. He has surfed on the World Championship Tour for 13 consecutive years, going on 14. But really, you don’t need us to run you through Mick’s accolades. You know he’s bloody impressive.

What you DO need us to do is tell you about what he did this week. This week he ran his first ever Elite Grom Camp for Australia’s best 16-and-under surfers at an undisclosed location, somewhere north of Surfing Life’s headquarters.

The lucky talent was made up of 10 surfers, evenly distributed between sexes – Xavier Huxtable from Jan Juc, VIC, Mikey McDonagh from Lennox Head, NSW, Luke Wrice from Coledale, NSW, Luke Glover (the GromSearch 14-and-under winner) from Caloundra, QLD, Joe Van Dijk from Phillip Island, VIC, Kobie Enright from Tweed Heads, NSW, Kirra-Belle Olsson from Avoca, NSW, Sabre Norris from Newcastle, NSW, Piper Harrison (the GromSearch 14-and-under winner) from Gunnamatta, VIC and Laura Poncini from Caloundra, QLD.

Tyler Wright joined the camp as a special guest athlete, as well as Phil Mac, Mick’s coach, who volunteered to share some words of wisdom with the groms.

As you all probably saw, Tyler recently had a bit of a bad run during the Boardriders Battle in Cronulla, when she took a left just a bit too close to the ocean pool. Part of the reason she decided to join the camp and support Mick’s cause was to help “re-invigorate her stoke” – and what better way to froth out then hang with a bunch of shredding groms on the best day of swell the year has seen? Not only did she “re-invigorate her stoke”, but she caught the wave of the swell, a wave that one of the local lifeguards called “the best he’s ever seen out here”.

And the groms? Not only did they score pumping surf, but they scored one of those fan-dangled Rip Curl GPS watches, a Mick Fanning backpack and a whole heap of other sweet gear made for shredmeisters.

When we asked them what they learnt, they stood there and didn’t wanna share (half from our looming, intimidating figures, half from the competitive whisper in the back of their brains saying don’t tell your secrets!), but from the looks of the photos above (and this clip), they walked away with a wealth of knowledge and an experience they’ll never forget (apologies for the cliché).

We spoke to Mick about him potentially missing a few days at Kirra and Snapper to practice for the upcoming CT season, but he responded by saying something along the lines of “Snapper and Kirra were crowded and sucked, and we scored the best day of the year, and the best I’ve ever seen this spot.” Or something like that.

We thought that Phil Mac might have some concerns over Mick’s lack of Snapper training for those days – turns out he thought MF had gotten the same, if not more, paddle training, strength training and mental training than he would have at home. We agree, because those groms have a whole heap of energy, and if anything’s gunna train you to stay calm mentally it’s living with 10 of ‘em.