Reigning world champ and Coolie-local Mick Fanning has been given a clean bill of health leading up to the commencement of his title defense this weekend at the season-opening Quiksilver Pro, starting at Snapper Rocks on Thursday.

As previously covered, Fanning suffered a hairline fracture while on a snowboarding voyage to Japan over the holidays. As expected, his arm has healed just fine and Fanning couldn’t be more stoked as his reign as champion will begin right in his own back yard.

The wrist’s fine – I’ve been surfing virtually since I got back from Japan, even with the cast on… I’m feeling fit and healthy, I’ve got some great boards and I’m just really excited to start competing again.

Fanning, and everyone else for that matter, is expecting Kelly Slater to come out firing from the opening horn. With that being said, he believes his biggest threats will come from fellow “Coolangatta Kids” Joel Parkinson and Dean Morrison, who are both past winners of the event.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. With the the line-up of so many phenomenal surfers ready to go, the 2008 ASP Tour is certainly shaping up to be one of the most competitive and exciting tours ever. There will be a lot of pressure to start the season off with solid results at Snapper and the “Coolie Kids” wealth of knowledge when it comes to this break definitely has to be seen as an advantage.

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Tags: Mick Fanning

Posted by Shaun on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 in Surfing.

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