MAKE YOURSELF COMFY MICK, SWELL’S HERE TO STAY
SURF champion Mick Fanning is renowned pulling off a fierce layback snap in competition, but this laidback snap is just ridiculous.
“Mick threw himself down on his board having a joke with his mate at Greenmount, it was just shenanigans in the surf,” said Tweed Heads amateur surf photographer John Mulhearn, who was amazed he captured this image on Tuesday.
“He looked like he should have had a beer or a cappuccino in his hand.”
Yesterday, like thousands of boardriders across southeast Queensland, three-time world champion Fanning was back at it at Burleigh Heads and having a ball in the 2m pumping surf, which is being generated by a storm in the Tasman Sea.
Boardriders revelled in the conditions, but lifeguards urged swimmers to take care. Many beaches were closed.
The big waves are set to continue until tomorrow, says Coastalwatch forecaster Ben Macartney who first picked the incoming swell last week.
“The swell’s upgraded a little bit. The low in the Tasman Sea seems to have parked itself and maintained intensity,” he said, adding the southerly swell was expected to hit the Gold Coast more from the southeast today, which could mean better quality waves for boardriders.
“It could get a bit better. We’ve got at least two really good days of surfing to come,” Mr Macartney said.
Gold Coast chief lifeguard Warren Young said only experienced surfers should attempt paddling out into the waves that closed beaches.
Early yesterday lifeguards closed beaches at Staghorn Ave at Surfers Paradise, Miami, North Burleigh, Tallebudgera, Pacific and all locations south of Currumbin except Greenmount.
“It is a pulsing swell at the moment. Some inexperienced surfers could get out (behind the breakers) and find themselves well out of their depth, if you excuse the pun,” Mr Young said.