Two Doting Dads with Matty J & Ash - Three Doting Dads feat. Mick Fanning

Episode Date: July 23, 2023

Absolutely stoked to bring out this bonus ep (which is one of our favs to far) with all-round aussie legend, three time world surfing champ and doting Dad - Mick Fanning. We chat about how he got into surfing growing up in Penrith, the day he almost became a professional soccer player instead of surfer, which one of his world champs is his favourite, how he met his fiancée Bree and the moment he got to hold his son, Xander, for the very first time. Follow @twodotingdads on Instagram here. Or slide into our DM's with any Doting Dads or Mums you'd like us to interview. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to Three Doting Dads. I'm Matty J. I'm Ash. And I'm Mick Fanning. And normally, this podcast is purely just about parenting the highs the lows the relatability and no advice no usually we don't offer any advice but i reckon this one's going to be a little bit different could be maybe some life advice maybe some paddle advice how to surf better maybe for matt not for me i don't think i can take the feedback nick we wanted to say firstly thank you for welcoming us into your house on the gold coast yeah it's beautiful and like all good guests we have brought

you something to say thank you it would be rude if we came empty-handed oh okay yes that's not scary anything it's all good when i was growing up me and my friends used to watch a movie of yours called fanning the fire oh beautiful and we used to i was saying to matt friends used to watch a movie of yours called Fanning the Fire. Oh, beautiful. And we used to, I was saying to Matt, we used to have one of those, my dad's a medical rep, used to be a medical rep, and he used to have like a small TV that you got from a doctor's surgery that had a VHS in it that you could slow-mo it down. We used to slow-mo it down when you were hitting the lip or whatever, see if we could pick out some techniques.

So, I've managed to get hold of a VHS of Fanning the Fire for you. Classic. And Maddy and I on the inside have just said thanks for having us. Thanks. Signed it off for you to do what you want with it. That's hilarious. But again, thank you for having us. I appreciate it.

Thank you, guys. When we started the podcast, we had a bit of a list. We didn't really think we'd have that many guests, to be honest. We thought it would just be Ash and myself. Talking shit. And we put a list together of who would we like on the podcast, and your name was thrown out as one of the top shelf guests. And Ash said, leave it with me.

I'm going to do some work. And I'll be honest, I gave him about a 5% chance of locking in this interview. I thought if ever there was someone who's being pulled pillar to post for requests on podcasts, it would be yourself. Absolutely, yeah. And look, I connected some dots. Thankfully, I met Sam, so shout out to Sam, who's a great guy.

And I said, can you help me out? And obviously, he's managed to connect us. And yeah, thank you for inviting us to your house because, I mean, I wouldn't want us in your house. I've had some different people. Here we are. So those of you listening, just a little bit of an introduction for Mick. He's a three-time world champion.

He's a nine-time Australian Surfer of the Year. Is it nine times? It is. I love how he pretends he doesn't. I want it that many times. I stopped counting when i got to five yeah it's definitely it's definitely nine i've done my i've done my there was conflicting articles but it's nine you single hand as i say you you carried a generation of australian surfers

on your back for a very long time and definitely one of my growing up watching obviously white lightning, as we call you in my household, just shred. So thank you for having us. I think the most surprising thing when we were doing some research into you, and for anyone who's not familiar, you're originally from Penrith. So how does a boy from Penrith become a world champion surfer? Do you remember your first little taste of the ocean or was it love at first sight um yeah I do so to answer your question how to surf in Penrith

we don't yeah you move yeah exactly my parents separated when I was pretty young and we moved to Coffs Harbour with my dad and we lived oh it was five five-minute walk from the beach. And my older brothers, Ed and Pete, just found surfing, just fell in love with surfing. And so we just tagged along. And my introduction to surfing was sort of rapid, like because my brother Peter, he doesn't have any boundaries. How many years older was he?

He is nine years older than me. Yeah. So you're the youngest, aren't you? I'm the youngest of five. And so he just... he doesn't have any boundaries how many years older he is nine years older than me yeah and so you're the youngest i'm the youngest of five and so he just he's pretty much like yeah i'll take you surfing and he'll get me out the back and guess all right so that's how it obviously worked so that's that and he did that like I speak to his daughter and she's still haunted by, I remember this one day he took her out, snapped her and was like three foot and she's like five years old and she's on the front freaking out.

He didn't care. He just laughs. But yeah, that's pretty much our introduction. And then from there though, we moved after coughs, after surfing a little bit, we moved back down to Campbelltown. Classic surf breakout. Yeah. So I got more into skating at that time,

but my brother Ed was still so in love with surfing. He would catch the train from Campbelltown to Wollongong or Manly, depending on where he wanted to surf. And so, yeah, 13-year-old kid on the train with his surfboard in the western suburbs. Probably wouldn't survive today. What's that, like a 13-year-old kid on the train with a surfboard in the western suburbs. Probably wouldn't survive today. What's that, like a couple-hour trip? I think it's, yeah, an hour and a half, two hours on the train.

Especially like back then when it was probably like public transport. It wasn't as frequent as what it is now. You couldn't get an Uber. My old man lived in Balmain and he was the same. He used to travel to Manly every day. So whenever me growing up and I was like, oh, I couldn't be bothered going surfing. He's like, I used to get a bus and a train he's not 80 he's 60 yeah i used to get a bus and a train

and you're complaining you live down the road from you know one of the best beaches in the world so yeah i can definitely feel that do you remember was there a point or was it something that just was gradual that desire to be the best like Like, do you remember going, I want to be world champion? Or was it just a case of wanting to be better than your brothers? Sorry. Or was it just like, fuck, I'm good? Definitely wasn't that one. No, so it was, I don't know.

I always wanted to be really good at something. Growing up, I was into cross-country running. I was into soccer. And surfing was pretty much the last thing I would do on the weekend after I did all those other things. And it wasn't until, like, I was so into soccer, I thought I was going to be a pro soccer player. And we moved to the Gold Coast, and it sort of went to sign up at Palmy's Soccer Club

and we actually went the wrong day. So I jumped back in the car all sad and, you know, tail between my arms. So did you rock up and there was just no one there? No one. How old were you at this point? I was 12. So the competitive fire of you was like, I can't wait.

Especially for a club like Palm Beach, this is a pretty big club around here. Don't know how you missed that. Was that you or was that your mum? I'm not too sure. I'm really not too sure. We were just thinking there'd be someone there. We thought it was sign-on, but it just wasn't happening.

I did a similar thing but went to the wrong field, but I didn't become a World Champion. So, I mean, i don't tell that story but then jumped in the car went down to debar and my brother sean was meeting up with the guys from quicksilver to get sponsored and i just went surfing and i came in and remember dan takino and scott peacock who were the quicksilver guys at the time they came up to me and and i was like oh you're looking for my brother and they're like is that your brother and they're like we'll sponsor you too and i was like they just been watching you surf yeah so they were watching us both and long story short didn't go back to soccer

obviously yeah and just surfing just took over so when you when you first get sponsored what does that look like is it a board and a bit of money per week or the sticker at the front of the board is the biggest thing as a grommet because i know as a girl like i'm what nine years younger than you and like i remember seeing all you guys surfing with your stickers on the front i was like how do i get one of those stickers on the front of my board for sure you've got to be sponsored so heaps people would pretend like me i'm still pretending i think my first contract was five hundred dollars worth of clothes sick and a winter wetsuit and a summer wetsuit wow that's a fair whack at the time too sure i got nothing from soccer all i got was bruises and grass stains and how many stickers did you get? I had a pile of them. But, yeah, so that was pretty much it.

And then started at PBC, Palm Beach Crumlin High School, and our seat was pretty much consisted of all the best surfers in this area. So, you know, I sat with Dean Morrison, Joel Parkinson, and there was a few others. Tough crowd. Yeah. So, yeah, those two were destined to be pro surfers yeah i was just like well i'm gonna do whatever they're doing so i can be a pro surf

too how was your mum at that point did she think this is amazing you've just been sponsored this is your future well ed was sponsored by billabong before sean and ed were just so in love with surfing you know great surfers so she was like look follow your dreams if it works out it works out if it doesn't then you know go to school get a real job yeah did you have any backup plan at all yeah socceroos man didn't you hear no it was she was pretty adamant that we had to go to school and keep learning that was the one thing but then it was just like follow your then it was just like, follow your dreams. She was always saying that, follow your dreams.

And she tells grandkids now, just go and follow your dreams. Have a crack, yeah. Yeah, and so that was pretty much it. We just went for it. And, you know, I sort of, as time went on, by the time I got to like year 11 and 12, I had contracts that I could live off. So I was like... And you finished school all the way

through no i left halfway through year 12 i wanted to finish but they sure you did me they told me if i missed one more day of school then i wasn't going to get my op so i was like well see ya see uh we're actually m you and me, we're quite similar, not in terms of athletic ability, but we're both kind of, I guess, mummy boys. Would you call yourself that? Yeah, probably. Perfect, great.

Yeah, Matt's one of five as well. Matt's the middle child, so he's been nurtured. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the middle one. He's the favourite. But I never had the alter ego though yeah like you did uh eugene when did that come out who branded you with the alter ego eugene my mate ado wiseman actually drew that one naughty eugene um is that eugene there that's naughty eugene yeah so yeah what happened was i didn't it was after sean passed away i didn't drink for a long time i shouldn't have been drinking anyway i was only 17 but i went down to his 21st birthday eight days and got pretty drunk and he was like i've never seen that side of you. And that was it. He just goes, that was like, you're a different person.

So he just called me Eugene. And it just stuck. He's got me into a bit of trouble over the years. So I've sort of tried to tone him back and sort of created another alter ego that I call McMuffin, who's a little bit naughty. More dad version. More fun.

Yeah. Since becoming a dad, do you think that Eugene suppressed much more surely? Oh, for sure, for sure. Yeah, McMuffin comes out much more. Yeah. Becoming a dad, it's like kids don't have an off switch. No, 100%. So if you're hungover, it's game over.

You might as well. That's when I do my best parenting. I love just sitting on the couch and just sooking my way through a hangover. But, yeah, I just – I don't really drink that often anymore. And if I do, it's for a very special occasion. Do you remember the last time Eugene made an appearance? Yeah, it was probably about three weeks ago. He's still there.

Is he still in Fiji? Yeah, I left him there. Yeah, I woke up the next day and hungover parenting was great. It is brutal, isn't it? I mean, it's so bad. And like around that time, you would have been probably just going into the ASP tour was what it was called then. When I was younger no i

was doing the junior series at that stage and then because you won the junior qs no i never never actually won like the series always was sort of like second or third yeah i can't go yeah the three that rivalry like friendly rivalry to the three i could imagine that when i surf now and i'm sitting there and i see like a couple of groms all imagine that when i surf now and i'm sitting there and i see like a couple of groms all together coming out i'm like fuck i'm getting out i can imagine over the years the amount of people looked in and went oh shit it still happens man it still happens if the three of us are out in the water it's a real bad day for everyone else we're just palling around each other and we just turn into sharks

where we just freaking just ignore everyone else in the lineup we're just there to annoy the shit out of you kind of earned the ride around here or around the world all three of you really you sort of earned the ride to be like i want to mix here well you can have this one mate yeah no so then what was your rookie year my rookie year on tour was 2002. Did the QS going into that. But yeah, rookie year 2002, all three of us were on tour. I think Parco got second in the world that year. I ended up fifth and Dingo didn't do that great.

Did you get rookie of the year that year? Yeah. Yeah, first year. Amongst best surfer of the year, Australian surfer? Or was it the year after? Maybe the year australia or was it the year after uh maybe year after yeah they sort of with the australian surfers of the year it's it's like whoever's on top of the on top yeah when you had your rookie year for the older boys do they welcome

you with open arms or is there like any level of initiation high school hazing yeah a bit of both really it was funny so because there was the three of us plus we had nathan hedge as well oh yeah hoggy yeah the hog we sort of traveled as a pack and so sort of we probably had more confidence than what we deserved but then we had like we had great people look after us like mick love bo eminem oki looking is it just the done thing that the older boys will like allow you to come under their wing or is it how does that work with the hierarchy of like oh let's look after mickey's like how young were you at the time i was 20 turned 21 that year but no it was sort of more like those guys enjoyed a beer and every time that they asked you if you wanted a beer, you say yes. So we sort of build that rapport over that.

And plus we'd known them for a long time growing up through older brothers and stuff like that. And like all the board riders and stuff as well. Exactly. I mean, I remember like looking at like board rider lineups and it was just like, fuck, how do you compete with that? Oh, it's horrible. Really?

Yeah. I mean, the culture back then being ASP, it was just like how do you compete with that oh it's horrible really yeah i mean the culture back then being asp it was like i mean we look at tour now these athletes right they've sort of evolved from you know instead of like oki offering you a beer it's now it's like acai bowl straight to the gym like you know standing next to these guys you're like holy shit yeah they're built so i do recall you had that injury to your hamstring and then you sort of came back with a different fire and i always think when the brazilian storm came in as well it was kind of like all of a sudden we can't be piss heads anymore and we got to start to train and you really focused on your training sort of led you into much more of a competitive surfer the back end of your career yeah definitely yeah so i tore my hamstring off the bone in 2004 but before that like mate i was having as much fun

as anyone else you know early 20s single having a great time around the world as you would yeah and then once i tore my hamstring off the bone i realized that i was taking it for granted like a reality check it was a big reality check and it was the first time like pretty much from 16 to 20 things just happened so fast that we didn't even get a break just to look at what we have achieved or whatever and yeah i had six months on the couch and so it was the first time i actually got to learn about diet learn about proper training and all these different things and probably the biggest thing was i watched an old clip and it just i saw that i was off and i could have won the heat and i remembered back and i was like i was partying two nights before and I'm like,

there it is. I had this huge guilt over me and that's why I sort of just changed my whole thing where it was just party at the end of the event. So how were the boys then when they're like, hey, Mick, have a beer and you're like, not for me, I'm having a green tea. Yeah. Sae bowl for me, please.

Yeah, it was a bit weird to be honest at the start because back then because there was 44 guys on tour, you would win your first heat and you'd have the next day off. So it could have been with the waiting period, it could have been that day or it could have been three days off. So usually you'd get 18 guys go out and have a good time. Yeah, it was real different that people would be like come have a beer i'm like no i'm good like and everyone you're okay like yeah imagine back in

those days too like if you said you weren't drinking then it was like something was wrong yeah sort of became part of the culture yeah yeah it was a bit different but then yeah as time evolved everyone just started turning and just turning gym junkies. Yeah, do you think that, like I mentioned, the Brazilians with their injection into the tour, because they're so competitive and you see these guys in the tour now like Philippe who just won Jeffrey's last night and Gabe especially and you spent some time with Gabe over your career

just through sponsorship and stuff. The drive and the training, like he's got his own facility in brazil for young and upcoming surfers to get the right training do you think that they brought on this complete new generation of surfer i think like they're crazy crazy talented like that's one thing but i think also too it's a hunger from where they come from. Yeah. A lot of them grew up with nothing. Totally.

And, you know, as history goes, the kids that grew up with nothing, the ones that go and just keep fighting. The drive. Yeah. And you talk to any of them and ask where they come from, they're all the same, you know. The only way out was sport and winning. Yeah. It's either soccer or surfing.

And so that's where all their fire comes from. And then it's sort of, I guess, like for Gabe, Philippe and Italo, they're all mates or they grew up as mates. And then it all becomes this thing where I'm not letting my mate beat me. So they're fighting within themselves. Perpetuates. Yeah, and just keeps putting them into this different stratosphere. But I think we're starting to learn, you know,

I think kids are starting to learn that they have to create this grit or create this fire from somewhere. And we're slowly seeing kids figure out what works, what doesn't. I think this year's as competitive as it gets yeah it's crazy i go to like a surf specific gym in sydney and they're getting younger and younger the guys that are coming because they're like i want to build this strength so i can do turns like mick fanning did when you know when he was on tour and when you know these guys are doing massive hacks i'm not going to do that wringing wet at 30 kilos, you know.

Yeah. It's sort of a funny one for me too, though, because I want kids to enjoy surfing for what it is. And that's, you know, go and have surf with your mates and stuff like that. And not be so clinical. Yeah. It's such an expression of yourself too. How do you convey that as a legend of the sport? Like, get out of the gym.

Yeah. I think that's sort of a twofold sort of answer. Like a lot of it was when we were growing up, surfing wasn't seen as a career. It was just something that you did. The 500 bucks worth of clothes and that was it. The sticker. Where now parents see that, oh, these guys can go and make lots of money

and become, you know know it's almost that soccer parent yeah and so it's a tough one and so it's more i think it's more on the parent side of things to be like hey just go have fun yeah you know don't worry about this contest or that contest when you're 12 it doesn't matter if you win or not as long as you're really enjoying it yeah and then as you get older it's more about just learning and experiences and you know just creating childhood friendships that last for an eternity so that's what i would say yeah once you get to a point when you you know anywhere from like 16 to 18 if you show promise then start inquiring about knuckling down yeah there's always plenty of time in those teenage years to have fun and then find some focus i can

just see in 10 years time if we have this conversation again you're going to be standing on the beat. I'll be at home on the internet. When you look back at the three world championships, I kind of imagine it would be like a child trying to pick your favorite. Is there one that stands out when you're having those moments on the back porch, having a drink and you think, oh, that one stands out bigger than the others? They're all really different. You know, the first one was really, I was in a world of unknown and

it was a world of just trial and error and competing against icons of the sport, Kelly, Andy, Taj, Paco. I was just trying to figure it out as I went and I was just so focused on it that nothing else came into my world so that one was a bit different but I was really proud of myself for figuring out a system but then from there 2009 was really different in 2008 I felt like I had to sort of repay the people that supported me so I sort of at that stage I couldn't compete but also be a good friend or a good brother or sister. So I sort of went the other way and I was trying to learn how to juggle it all and, yeah, just really wanting to, I guess, try and create a balance.

And then 2009 I felt like I had a really good balance. I could have a lot of fun with my friends but then I could always switch on and get back to work and yeah that competitive mindset yeah was it pretty consistent with each of the three that come down like when you have the high of winning does it last the same each time 2007 was probably a bit more i i was probably more exhausted the other ones it was sort of just up to me putting pressure on myself but yeah i felt like the last one was more tradesman like where to be really honest i doubted myself every time i paddled out for a hate like i'm not winning this i'm not winning now i'm not good enough. Because you're getting older or what was...

Yeah, I was older and just, you know, talking about the new kids that were coming through, you had Gabe, you had John John, you had all these kids that just were just doing incredible things. I can't imagine how Kelly Slater feels having to go through three or four different times, the changing of the gut, but he's still there. Yeah, I know.

I say it all the time. I'm glad I quit. That's stressful. And so, they're all really, really different. But as you said, they're like different children. Yeah. I suppose like, you know, retirement, you retired in 2018. Do you feel that you were at your peak performance?

How do you think you would go today? look be as modest as you like in a jeffrey's bay heat today yeah look you know for places there's some places on tour that are still surf traditionally and jay bay is one of them pipeline chopu like those ones uh are ones that are still surf traditional style of surfing like i look at i won't talk about myself but watching guys like parker or andy and kelly like kelly and his prime would still oh still destroy believable there's a reason he's got so many world titles. It's not a fluke. No. You know, 11's not a fluke. He was out as well.

Oh, yeah. Mick, we had the privilege of meeting your wife before we started recording. I did have a little look at your social media, and it just seems like you guys are so picture perfect. Coming from the bachelor over here, who we all got to watch their whole love unfold he rivals it i i think if there was like a mr universe competition for couples i think mick and brie will be up top husband of the year mate where did you guys meet

how did you guys come together yeah it was funny we we sort of met by mutual friends and yeah met in the states and it was just a weird one best way to sort of explain it was i had a friend and she had a friend and they hooked up and then she came over to pick up her friend you know so she didn't have to do oh the walk of shame oh that was a was meet-up. You actually met in the morning. Yeah, and she walked in and I didn't meet her the night before, but we had all been put on the same table and I was just Eugene. And then she walked in wearing my jacket. I was like, whoa, that's a bit different.

Yeah, right. But she just picked it up. Yeah, I guess someone stole her jacket and she didn't have a jacket my mate goes oh mick's gone home just take his jacket he doesn't need it yeah how quickly do you drop in i am a three-time world champion surfer does that not at all what about a nine-time australian server server of the year she don't give two shits that's perfect you want that don't you yeah so uh yeah it really sort of a random meeting yeah isn't it always like it's not always the case your case is not yours was completely public and on tv for everyone to see should we talk about it they put

you in a room together but yeah it's crazy it's like a friend of a friend and like just a chance meeting and now you know you've got obviously a beautiful home beautiful son and you've got married and at what point were you thinking maybe i will have kids maybe i won't because you know were you in your mid to late 30s at that point yeah i i don't know i i guess i had a marriage breakdown before and so i was like i'm just gonna just sail off in the sun and be a nomad. And then, yeah, when I met Bree, we just stayed in touch and kept talking. And she one day, she was visiting out from the States and she's like, I want to move to Australia.

I was like, really? Cool. How long have you guys been together for at that point? Probably, I think it was like a second or third time she was out here. Oh, wow. Yeah. But we had caught up a fair bit because she was just living around the corner from my best mate as well in the States.

So we caught up a fair bit and then from there it was like, all right. But then you sort of just, you just see how things go. Like you don't put any pressure on it. And then one day we were just sort of talking and it was like, well, you know, would you want kids? Do you want kids? And we were both like, yeah, let's have kids. Off we go then.

Let's go. And so that was pretty much it. And we sort of selected like a timeframe that we wanted to start trying and Bree wanted to get her body right for having kids and stuff like that and then it's a very mature yeah she's way more mature than me i'm a very mature thing to get your body right to do anything let alone have kids you dropped a knee when you were doing a photo shoot for the pregnancy how much planning went into that moment oh this was such a funny day i sort of came at it at two different angles where we went in for our first scan.

And so... It's nerve wracking that scan, isn't it? It was awesome. I loved it. I was saying that every scan I got seasick. You got motion sickness from the heartbeat. I love it. Oh, I'm so stoked to be a part of it.

But yeah. And so I was sitting there and I was like, hey, we've got to do a photo and, you know, we've got to let it out into the world so, you know, someone else doesn't break the news or something like that. So I had my mate staying with us at the time, Corey Wilson, and I'm like, let's go do a photo shoot. Once we knew that she was pregnant, I was like, oh, right thing to do is propose.

Yeah. Lock it down yeah and we're in the states at the time ordered the ring the ring was pretty much right next to the whole flight home she didn't know anything that's the best way to do it were you in like in your pocket or on your carrier i gave it to my mate cory having his bag pressure on cory don't lose my ring. Yeah. And so we got home and I was like, look,

we've got to go do this photo shoot. It had been raining forever too. She was like, I've got nothing to wear. I've got none of this. I don't feel pretty. I'm just like, just put anything on. Just do it. Stop stalling.

She's like, we had an appointment and we're driving home. She's like, had an appointment we're driving home she's like we're not doing photos today i'm like we've got to she's got nothing to wear and i'm like i was just thinking how am i gonna do this and so i got cory in and cory's like no i wear that that's beautiful that looks amazing it looks so good is cory like a fashionable guy? Or are you just like, let's just push this as like a yes thing? Yeah. Oh, he's, you know, he does photo shoots. He gets it. He's a really good surf photographer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if he's dressing the boys. So we went down the beach and then sure enough, sun comes out. I'm like, we've got to go. We've got to go. We've got to go do it. And so we're doing the photos. It's hard to know, like, do I do it now?

Do I wait five minutes? How honest were you nervous? Oh, I was nervous. I think as all men are. Such a nervous, like, similar to, I actually went to the States to propose with my now wife. And I hid it, the ring, on me the whole time. Like, I had it tucked into my underpants and at one stage she put her arm around me she never touches me i don't know this instance she

decided to touch me missed it by about that millimeter so then and i was honestly just packing nuggets for like days on the lead up so no she was like but uh yeah you get to that moment the sun's out cory's got the camera out yeah and oh she she said something like oh it's gonna be so fun all of us together and i was like well why don't we make it official and she's like what and i just pulled it out of my pocket and giving me goosebumps yeah getting flashbacks it was. And it was like, it was the first beach I'd taken her to in Australia. Yeah. The sun came out, the dolphins were jumping. Oh, it's cool.

I'll show you the photos. Matt's already seen them. He's already stalked them. Do you remember what it was like, that very first moment that you got to hold Xander? Yeah. It was incredible. As you go through the birth, you're hearing noises that you've never heard your partner ever make and this and that. This is like, it's primal.

It's pretty intense. Yeah, it's pretty intense. Yeah, but I found it so beautiful. And then we didn't find out if it was going to be a boy or a girl. We just went for it. Did you have any preference or were you like? Oh, I wanted a boy. And Bree thought it was a boy the whole time.

And I was like, well, if it's not a boy, I've got to really sit down and, you know, talk to myself. And I had a week where I was like coaching myself through it. And so I was so pumped either way in the end. And then when he came out and i picked him up and the obstetrician's like oh why don't you check out what it is and i was just like picked him up i always thought they would say like they would announce it yeah in the room like because yeah maybe it's a new thing now they kind of because i didn't know either and

they kind of just said, you go check. I always thought they would like call it out like, here you are. Announce it over the PA of the hospital. Yeah, I guess it's in your birth plan, right? Yeah, exactly right. And like that moment where you go skin to skin with it. Look, there is no other moment like it until you do it again. Anyway, that's not a special this time.

No, that's not true. that moment is yeah like i said there's nothing else like it do you think you'll have another kid are you planning on yeah we have talked about it we always plan or not plan but it's definitely in the pipeline we'd love to but you know when that happens when that happens it happens yeah that was like similar to acid when my wife decides it's going to happen it's going to happen that's usually when we became dads we always joke about some of the changes that started to happen like for me i all of a sudden really liked lawn grass became obsessed started walking with my hands behind my back do you see your sneezes louder now that you're a dad?

I've always been a loud sneezer. Any dad tendencies that have started to creep in after Xander arrived? Oh, I wear a man bag now. Just to make sure that I've got all the gear. Yeah? Yeah. Like a dad bag. A dad bag, yeah.

Just because I couldn't, you know, carry a big old handbag. Yeah. So I just got my little things, yeah. Just a nice little pouch. A couple of nappies, you know, some wines. And have you had to add a couple of litres to your surfboards now? No, he looks as trim as anything. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

How dare you suggest that? Well, no, it's fine. Well, you did mention you had pancakes for breakfast this morning. Yeah, how are you getting away with that oh my the nickel and free dairy that's the trick isn't it no body definitely changed like especially being an athlete and i just come out of knee surgery oh that on stab in the dark that's right with dane and yeah so dane rey Reynolds is up there for me. Yeah, he's a good man. So I was working pretty hard.

And for me, it was more just my selfishness just had to go out the window. That's probably been the biggest thing is like, you know, when I want to go to sleep in, like this morning, for instance, got a busy day. So it's like, well, you're going to get up on dark and go surfing. Yeah. It doesn't matter what the waves are like, you're going get up on dark and go surfing yeah it doesn't matter what the waves like you're going that's the only time you get to go yeah yeah otherwise you sort of

get you know you get bogged down they bog you down these kids yeah you got two of them hang the surf boards up mate seriously one of the hard things though when you've just come out of childbirth as parents is that it's such a roller coaster you had this really intense high where like i remember being in tears holding my daughter for the first time and then the reality of parenting really creeps in you know you've got sleepless nights you've got this baby that's crying you have no idea what's wrong with it because you're trying to figure it out was there any part of having a newborn that you thought shit this is so much harder than i thought no no like i guess traveling the world all the time i was always used to jet lag this is a

different kind of jet lag because if you sleep an extra minute then it could be the the death of your child so you've got to get up but that's how i sort of looked at it but brie's just so across everything and she was just so well-read and so ready to be a mum. Did you do the parenting classes? I did. Good boy. Yeah, I did.

We did hypnobirthing. In person or during COVID? Yeah. Because it would have been pre-3. It was through COVID. What's hypnobirthing? What's that? Hypnobirthing is all about breathing and just, you know,

talking about the woman's body is made perfectly for the baby. When you're in the class, what's your role? Go to sleep. Stay awake. Exactly. So I would go surfing and I always come back and towards the end of the class every time they would do like a meditation and all that stuff.

And I'd be asleep. It's on. to do like a meditation it's all that stuff and obviously i can see matt picturing as the guy goes and you're back in the room just the heavy breathing coming from the corner where mick is guys he's a world champion he can do it everyone it's pretty funny but it's just yeah it's just all about positive reinforcement yeah yes but brie was brie was a warrior through birth she would be asleep in between contractions that's how mellow she was oh my god yeah she was like i always thought that i could get in the zone like being a did she get the drugs not one oh my god was incredible. And we had to, you know, start going, hey, you've got to start moving. Oh, my gosh.

So she's really zenned out on that. She was gone. It's wild, isn't it? Guys have got it so damn good. Yeah. The hardest thing I had to do was I missed out on my lunch. Have you ever zipped a fly up on the old fellow mate we don't have it yeah easy on so suzanne is three now he'll be three next month yeah and how do you find

the terrible twos and a toddler versus a newborn newborn like everyone says it's it's gonna get easier it's such a lie the shit thing about being a new dad or a new parent is that they go oh after three months they're so much better than it's like after six months they're so much better when does it end it's just always changing hours of four and it's like oh sometimes i look at us and i'm like oh my god why why are you making a mess on the fucking floor you gotta you just what's he into at the moment he loves just cartoons trucks and just swords i swear he's like a ninja or a warrior from past life because he just gets a sword or he turns anything into a sword and just waxes keep him away from that knife drawer man no he knows not to touch knife if he puts baby shark on and you're like turn it off oh you're traumatized from the baby shark i'm pretty good i don't really i don't really get

too phased on all that sort of stuff like my i i haven't listened to my music or a podcast or in the car for forever because it's either nemo or mic Mouse. Yeah. Wiggles or Cocomelon. Yeah, we don't do Cocomelon. Cocomelon's a problem. Yeah, I agree. But once they get, like, hooked in, you can't get them off. Look, honestly, we always talk about this on the podcast that YouTube is the best parent at that age because it's just like they just,

you get so much done when they're on the trip do you find that your parenting style is similar to that of of your mum or how you were raised i think if brie wasn't around it would be but brie's just so calm and so patient and she's taught me so much like you know i would just like stop crying. There's nothing to cry about. Let's go. She would talk through it and this and that. So I'm learning and we're just sort of we're doing like a challenge and you have to read a self-help book and I'm reading a parenting book.

What can you teach us? Teach us. Just patience. Both of us can't read. Yeah. Unless it's like video form or're just it's more about just listening and be patient like that's the most i'm getting out of this is that kids and toddlers don't have any sense of time they just act on what's in front of them

and as adults and parents we sort of act and react around time so it's it's like all right we've got to go we've got to do this we've got to do that where they're just like i don't care what you got to do yeah i'm chilling working on my time yeah i want to watch more i want to keep playing more yeah and we always in our house we're always like you know when we talk about oh you know one more minute five more minutes oscar now he'll just be like has no idea what five minutes means but if i say get off that five more minutes he doesn't give a shit either like yeah they're just in their own in their own world yeah one thing that a lot of people say to me with two girls and they're both pretty wild even at four and two is that when they're teenagers it's going to be really tricky for yourself and i and i thought as someone who's got the alter ego eugene what would

be the best way to parent a eugene like if my children have their alter egos how should i manage that oh you just tell them just be careful and learn from your mistakes man that's sound solid advice that was like when you got in trouble as a youngster with your mum, how would she react? What sort of mum was she when you were doing the wrong thing? It depends. If we came and told her that we did the wrong thing. And would you be honest and tell her? Yeah. Wow.

I hid everything from mum. Yeah. It was just more the fact that she'd look at it and just go, well, was that the right thing to do? And we're like, well, probably not. Very self-reflective. Yeah. But then there were other times if she caught us in the act,

then we'll get a slap in the head. Yeah. Okay. There you go. So she's got both sides covered. Yeah. Look, it's one of those things. It's like, you know, I think parenting is sort of almost like if you tell your

mate, like, don't do that. Stop carrying on. Like if they had a couple of beers or whatever, they just don't want to do it more. Totally. And I feel like that's what kids are like. So you just go with it. Yeah, keep going.

Draw on the floor. Draw on the floor. It's fine. We put the call out to the listeners for any questions to ask yourself. And I'm not making this up. One of the most common questions was, as a parent, have you ever been shat on? Have you had to deal with a poonami from the baby?

Oh, yeah. Yeah? The video just came up the other day because I had to fly away and Bree was showing Xander baby videos. And his favourite video now is watching himself shit on me. Was it at home though? At home though in the safety of your own home at least yeah he went all up me oh and then he started pissing on me too oh that's great there's nothing there's nothing that prepares you for that too you're like

holy shit literally yeah i'm not a germaphobe or anything like that but when it's all over you're just like can i get some help yeah you're just sitting there laughing take this child off me it's crazy like i feel like everyone's got a shit on story like it's just one of those things it's becomes part of parenting one thing that you've sort of done to us and to other dads you set the bar really high with the when your kid grows up and it's like my dad's stronger than your dad your son's always got that with my dad punched a shark thank you for that actually just been talking about that recently just because Jay Bates being on but funny story i walked into daycare one day

and he's like my dad punched shark and i'm like he said it he's already onto it he said it i'm like who the hell told him that because i hadn't spoken to him about it and then i was like brie did you tell him the story or whatever and she's like oh, oh, sorry. I shall let you do it. And then he forgot about it. And then just recently we've sort of been talking about it and he's like, in fact, he's got a little stuffed shark. No way. Yeah, and he hit me in the head with the shark. And you're like, what?

And I talked about it and I was like, but I don't tell him that, you know, I don't look as i punched her i sort of got dominated by a shark but i told him that i got hit in the head by a shark and he's like oh yeah my dad and he'll go and tell everyone just big shark comes along whacked him in there any daycare teacher who's not familiar with your story she'd be like xander that's not true people don't get hit in the head with sharks it is look it up it's funny because i said to my son last night as i left so early this morning i was like i'm going away tomorrow i'm not going to be here trying to tell him why i'm not going to be here so i'm going to meet someone he punched a shark his face because

he's obsessed with like he's got these toy sharks as well he just couldn't believe like because couldn't quite comprehend it it's crazy it's a lot for a four-year-old. It's a lot for a four-year-old. And we were with J-Bay just finishing up yesterday. I was like, oh, I'll just have a look at the, like, past winners of the comp, as you do. And it was, obviously, it goes through the list of winners. And it's funny on Wikipedia.

I don't know if you've seen it. On Wikipedia, it's 2015. Where the winner is, it says shark. Yeah. I was like, well well technically it did win that we had to abandon it but i was just like and then it's got you you've gone back the next year and obviously i do vividly remember watching it you winning it was like the whole country was behind you which is crazy but uh yeah i don't know how many people would have been cheering on that shark that day winning jay bay that was crazy did you see the footage just on nathan florence's that the one following

yeah yeah that's pretty much what happened with mine so they come up from the bottom of the point and go all the way up yeah and they're just cruising like they're not there to eat yeah they're just there to like their commute because yeah in 2016, the year after, they had to stop the comp that I remember and they were following a massive great white. Like it was just exactly a year later. It's like that time of year must be very – Yeah. I've never been to South Africa and I'm sure it's like that all the time.

But how we see it, that one time a year, and I remember this jet ski following it up vividly remember how big it was next to this jet ski and then it's just happened again yeah it's wild it is wild like it's one of those places right yeah i had it happen to me in i think it was 2017 i was in a heat with gabe medina and and i was getting flogged I saw the skis starting to come towards us. Was this at? It was at Jay Bay. It was at Jay Bay.

Yeah. And I saw them coming. I'm like, please, please, where's the set? Where's the set? Where's the set? Because I wanted to, it was towards the end of the heat anyway. You were like, get Gabe. And I was like, just let me catch a wave and go in

so I don't have to deal with it. Gabe's a bit of Brazilian barbecue. They got us on the boat. I'm just like, just take me in. I'm getting combos. Yeah, he's done like four aerobics. I was just saying, I don't have to do more media and crap. Yeah, it's the last thing I want to do.

Mick, I know your time is precious. You've got a busy day. So I just want to say thank you so much for sitting down with Ash and myself I still don't know how I did it how you've done this

how he's managed to lock you in I know yeah but it's best if I just don't ask questions don't ask questions we really appreciate your time do we just say

the twig connection yeah somehow in there just on the back of that yeah thank you so much for having us sitting down and chat with us you know know, career, dad, retirement, all that stuff.

Let me give you my favorite movie of yours that you can cherish forever. If you're missing any possessions from your house, it definitely wasn't us. Count your cutlery drawer. No, we appreciate it. And if you've enjoyed this episode, of course, give us a follow, review, hey, five uh if you've enjoyed this episode of course give us a follow review hey five stars if you want and let us know if there's any other doting dads or mums that you would like us to interview and uh ash i reckon we should probably get out of here absolutely go for

surf thanks again mick appreciate it guys enjoy thank you