Mick Fanning is the second of the Coolie kids, and the most successful. He sits in an exclusive club of three times world champions and other than legendary four time world champ Mark Richards, is the most successful Australian male surfer of all time.
Fanning was long known as the more ruthless of the three challengers from Australia and in the last nine years he has only finished out of the top three in the world on two occasions, and one of those was down to injury. He won his first title in 2007, then 09 and is currently the reigning world champ after a last gasp victory in 2013.
Some criticize his style as not being the flash new school end of things which make good viewing, but in reality he is just ruthlessly consistent and is one of the best power surfers on the planet. He’ll be in contention for several years to come yet despite the rise of the new school surfers.