All Photos: Duncan Macfarlane
Current Issue


MICK: When I came back from that injury, winning the world title was all that I could think about. Literally everything in my life revolved around it. I didn't know exactly how to go about doing it, so I was just making shit up as I went along. It was really draining to do it that way, and at the end of the year I was spent. After I won, I didn't even want to be there anymore. I just wanted to go surfing and have fun again.



Right now, I'm really relaxed and feel like I'm flowing a lot better than I have in the past. I've learned that you don't have to be focused all the time in order to do well. You can just switch on for five minutes a day and that's enough to be in the zone and you don't have to worry about whatever else is going on throughout the day. You can enjoy a lot more of your time that way. It's been a lot of trial and error, but it's all starting to feel pretty natural.

Kelly is really good at being able to switch his focus on and off. When he's in the first round, he's sort of testing everything out and then when he's in the second or third round he'll start to switch everything on. And I think he can turn it off really quick. But when it gets down to the end of the year and everyone is talking about the title and asking you about it, it gets pretty crazy. It's hard to switch on and off and not think about it. But I guess when you've won 11 it doesn't really matter if you win another one, does it?