Mick Fanning, mood lighting at Lowers, CA

Well, Lowers starts in, like, a minute, and the lineup’s been stacked around the clock with world tour surfers and wildcards and non-world tour surfers and photographers, all wanting a piece in the lead-up to the Hurley Pro. Mick Fanning, pictured here, enjoyed the most of some natural west coast hospitality yesterday morning, swooping in early before the lineup ignited too heavily with people. Luckily for us, Damea Dorsey flippered through the shallows in the morning light, and framed this up for us. Mick’s currently number two in the world, and while Lowers might not be the first place that springs to mind when you think of tour stops that Mick’s overly dangerous at, just remember that he scooped a third here last year.