Mick Fanning and autumnal exchange, NSW

Mick Fanning landed back in Oz last week with a ninth place he’d scooped in the dirty waters of Rio De Janeiro. Since Fiji isn’t too far from Australia (compared with plenty of other tour stops), the downtime in Coolangatta is most welcome; regroup, fuel up, and go again. Australia’s on the cusp of winter right now, which admittedly doesn’t mean a whole lot for the Gold Coast, temp-wise, but does have some bearing on conditions. This barrel is from a D’bah session over the weekend, as photog Simon Muirhead tells us: “It was super crowded ’cause it was onshore and the only place to surf. Snapper isn’t breaking behind the rock right now, plus the MP Classic was running off the wall; But somehow Mick managed to snag two of the best barrels I saw all morning.”