Geez...every man & his dog is surfing these days...& now even the bloody swans are taking it up!
So why is the sports section of the news dominated by boring details regarding cricket/football for way too long & Mick Fanning gets like 20 secs when he's become world champ 
Yep....been here a while....surf crap so headed up to the hills. Loving it. Will post some pics.
Select to expand quoteMickPC said..
Wadaya mean he's too scared to take on John John?
From the Australian.........
DROPPING in on a lifetime Pipeline aficionado can lead to a fistful of respect being punched into the perpetrator on the sand.
But when Mick Fanning stole a wave from John John Florence at the Pipe Masters, raising his hand in apology before receiving an interference call that drastically changed his flight path towards the world title, bare-knuckle justice was replaced by enthusiastic debate about whether the incident was good luck, bad luck, dumb luck, careless, reckless, brilliant, a blessing, a curse, a calculated tactical move or a huge blunder by Australia's potential world champion.
Fanning was involved in a three-man, non-elimination heat in round four against America's Nat Young and Florence, the 21-year-old whippet who went to school across the road from Pipe and surfs the reef as though he never took a class in his life. Florence had the heat in the bag. Fanning was second. The winner would advance to the quarter-finals. The loser would enter the repechage of round five. Fanning was going to face Australia's Julian Wilson and Florence in the next two rounds. Danger, and then extreme danger. Wilson is the World No 6. If Pipe had rankings, Florence would be No 1.
But then came Fanning's blatant interference. He was docked points and fell behind Young in the heat. Instead of running into Wilson and Florence, he moved into a section of the draw inhabited by the less formidable duo of CJ Hobgood and Yadin Nicol. Fanning is assured of the world championship if he reaches the semi-finals. Back-to-back assignments against America's World No 10 and Australia's World No 32 hold greater appeal than stoushes against Wilson and especially Florence.
Intentional interference? Unintentional? The latter, according to Fanning. A blessing? A curse? The former. Hobgood is a threat in Big Pipe, and the forecast for Saturday is Big Pipe. Hobgood might normally be more formidable than Wilson, but has an injury niggle to an important part of a surfer's apparatus: leg. Avoiding Florence is manna from heat-sheet heaven. Fanning was in a no-nonsense mood after his loss. When he crossed paths with a bemused Florence in the competitors' area, he said: "Sorry, mate. I saw you paddle and look right on that one and thought you were going right."
Florence went left. So did Fanning. Immense implications. As Surfer magazine reported: "John John stood as the guy most likely to scupper Mick's title. If they'd both kept winning they'd have met in the quarters, meaning Mick would have to beat John John Florence at Pipeline to win the world title. Those are words no Australian wants to be hearing. But Mick changed his destiny in the dying throes of his heat. . Already beaten, he dropped in on John John on the last wave of the heat, scoring an interference and dropping from second to third.
"It seemed an act of frippery, a bird flipped to the universe with the heat already lost. But that drop-in might just be butterfly wings flapping in the Amazon.
"It meant that instead of surfing against Julian Wilson and John John - young, bristling, Pipe savvy, very ready for the Mick and Kelly era to end - standing between him and the world title, Mick now needs to beat an injured CJ Hobgood and a wide-eyed Yadin Nicol, who's into the quarters for the first time in his career."
The forecast for Saturday is 10-to-12-foot Pipe. Hobgood was born to surf 10-to-12-foot Pipe.
He used to stay at Gerry Lopez's house for months on end, learning from the master himself. You have to do your time out here, and Hobgood has done it for decades. But the injury reduces the threat.
"The best way to prepare yourself mentally is to remember how many years you've come here, put in your time and surfed the wave," Hobgood said.
"It's why I always wanted to compete and surf. I love the feeling of wondering what's going to happen when you take the drop."
Nicol is surfing for his career. He needs to win the event to stay on tour
too scared to take JJF on 
