PURE GOLD IN THE SURF AS FANNING TURNS TEACHER
MICK Fanning says a future Commonwealth Games surfing debut rests heavily on the location, and a host country’s financial ability to build wave pools in the absence of actual surf.
With the Margaret River Pro about to kick off without him, the newly retired Australian surfing legend turned his hand to coaching at Kirra Beach yesterday, giving former cycling champion Anna Meares, swim star Chad le Clos and tandem cyclist Jess Gallagher a surfing lesson they won’t forget anytime soon.
The three-time world champion assured it wasn’t part of a ploy to push for his sport’s inclusion at Birmingham 2022 Games and beyond. “It’s one of those things: If we have the right locations and stuff like that it’s great,” Fanning said.
“We don’t want to be surfing terrible little waves because I think that would hinder the sport. You go to these places that don’t have waves and then if you’re going to put in money just for a wave pool it’s expensive.
“But in saying that, if we get wave pools all around the world you could easily do an event in any of those places.
“If we got there one day that would be awesome.”
Surfing will be one of five new inclusions for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. However, the International Surfing Association and Surfing Australia recently revealed they had lobbied unsuccessfully for three years to have surfing added to the Gold Coast program.
Fanning yesterday transferred his knowledge to some of the world’s top athletes.
Retired Australian cycling champion Meares was a natural, standing up on her first go despite being “a klutz by nature”.
Fanning took turns pushing her and Gold Coast tandem cyclist Gallagher on to waves while South African swimmer le Clos celebrated his triple butterfly goldmedal haul – and 17 career Games medals – with several successful rides.