Gallery: Mick Fanning’s Glorious Retirement Bash

As the Victorian sun set and the first pulse of swell rolled into Bells, it was greeted by Brazilian surfers Yago Dora and Jesse Mendes at Rincon and the Bowl, while Caio Ibelli surfed with locals at Winkipop. It wasn’t pretty, but they were busy foam-climbing up and down, preparing for the second event of the season to start the next day.

Across town in Torquay, there was a contradictory scene as surfing’s elite gathered at the RACV Torquay Resort conference room (we know what you’re thinking, this is is the best you can do but where else are you gonna comfortably house 350 surfers?).

“Look at that shirt!” said Mick, who was dressed in a suit, to one of his close pals who came underdressed for his final celebratory night as a world tour surfer. “Thanks for dressing up. If you were getting married, I’d wear a flannel to your wedding!”

WSL’s Sophie Goldschmidt was there, as was the man with the whitest teeth on tour, Gabriel Medina, plus his mates Steph Gilmore, Owen Wright, Matt Wilkinson, and of course Mr. Kelly Slater, whose heartfelt speech brought the house down (more on that soon). 

In the meantime, please enjoy these photos of the world’s best surfers in uncomfortably fancy attire.