Mick Fanning’s emotional beach tribute with other surfing legends to third brother he has lost

Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning farewelled his last surviving brother on the Gold Coast on Saturday, two days after the birth of his second child. 

Ed Fanning, 48, died in late March in the African island nation of Madagascar, where he had been working as a surf coach.

The shocking news followed the death in 2015 of Mick’s older brother Peter, and another brother, Sean, dying in a car crash at Coolangatta in 1998 when the future triple world champion was just 17.

Hundreds of people, including other surfing legends, were at the Greenmount Surf Club on Saturday morning to celebrate Ed, who died from an infected cut.

On Thursday, Mick’s partner Breeana had a baby girl, a sister to their three-year-old  son, Xander.

Ed Fanning was remembered as a larrikin with a ‘heart of gold’ and inspired Mick to become a surfer.

‘Ed was so passionate about surfing that us brothers could only follow him to the beach and see for ourselves,’ Mick told the service, as reported in the Courier-Mail.

‘It was truly something life-changing, getting that first taste of the ocean in Coffs Harbour (where the brothers first surfed).

‘Ed had a dream to become a pro surfer with his best mates.’

Mick told a story how Ed had played air guitar at a school concert, miming to the 1985 Dire Straits song Money for Nothing.

He joked that the song’s lyrics of getting  ‘money for nothing and your chicks for free’ became Ed’s theme song throughout his life. 

Ed regularly raided Mick’s wardrobe and boardroom for free clothes and surfboards, he said. 

Mick said his brother loved a beer and he always feared that he would one day get a call that Ed had drunk ‘his last schooner’.

That call came last month, but Mick said Ed was in his ‘happy place’ in Madagascar after moving there in 2020 to teach surfing to both locals and tourists.

The Fanning brothers’ mum Liz Osborne spoke about Ed’s love for the Wests Tigers NRL team and how much he hated losing surfing heats. 

She also recalled how when he was on the dole at one point, he referred to it as being a member of then federal Treasurer Paul Keating’s ‘surf team’. 

Ms Osborne said Ed and his a partner had adopted a little girl called Jelly Baby, who had previously lived in poverty-stricken conditions.

‘I’m going back next week to see where my boy is buried, in his happy place, surrounded by such love,’ she said.