The Publicity Trail.

It was amazing to see the response to Mick Fanning’s new book Surf For Your Life at his signing at the Rip Curl store on Manly Corso last week, during the Manly Surf Festival. There was a queue halfway up the Corso and we were signing books for an hour and a half solid before we had to shut it down because Mick had to leave, with nearly 200 books sold and the punters still lined up. A couple of guys bought brand new Fanning model surfboards for around $700 a pop to get him to sign them. It was a very multi-cultural crowd too, with surfers from Argentina, Peru, Japan, Germany, the US, as well as plenty of locals lining up. Mick was patient and gracious with everyone, but I really noticed how he lit up when a young grommet got to the front of the line.

As current world number one, and with the world title decided next month in Hawaii, Mick seemed relaxed and happy, and undertook the next couple of day’s media duties with his typical good humour.

The first time I wrote a surfing biography, on Rabbit Bartholomew back in 1996, as a young, first-time author, I was a bit crestfallen to discover that all the media attention went, quite understandably, to Rabbit. We did a week-long, six-city media tour and I may as well have been invisible. Wed turn up to do radio interviews and I’d be invited to take a seat outside, while Rab went into the studio to talk story. What about me? I’d want to wail like Shannon Noll, having just devoted a year of my life to his story. Now, older, hopefully wiser, and with a young family to get home too, I’m profoundly relieved my surf star subjects can handle the media duties.