Mum's the word

The name Mick Fanning is synonymous with surfing success. The two time world champion has lucrative endorsement deals and is idolised by grommets everywhere but what you may not know about this Australian icon is that his manager is also his mum.

30 March 2010

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Liz Osborne is widely regarded as the best manager on surfing’s world tour.

The former Western Australian resident was recently back in town to support her son and 'client' while he competed as the defending world champion at the 2010 Drug Aware Pro at Margaret River.

While here she also took some time to speak at a function held at Trigg Island Surf Club hosted by the Department of Sport and Recreation.

Ms Osborne spoke candidly and courageously about a number of personal issues that have affected her and the Fanning family including relocating from Ireland to Australia, her divorce and the death of her fourth son Sean when he was only 20 years of age.

Through all those experiences sport has remained a constant companion.

“I’ve always been very active, played lots of sport as a kid and maintained hockey until I was 42. Sport has been very important to my family,” she said.

“The challenge was to ensure my children had an active life. Sport provided the way, they loved sport and I dedicated myself to it. My kids were always inspired by sport."

“As long as I had rent and food, the rest of the money went on boogie boards.”

As a worker in the mental health industry Ms Osborne always looked to use sport as part of the healing process.

“Sport is a fantastic way for anybody to build self-esteem, achieve, get encouragement and all those sorts of things, so I think programs for mental health patients are very important,” she said.

Although it’s not the most typical transition, Ms Osborne believes that her experiences as a mental health professional prepared her well to be the manager of an elite athlete.

“I’ve always been a leader who has always been inclusive, always been part of a team working with people so I knew I could do that (be a manager),” she said.

“I asked Mick to match my salary at the hospital and I would be his manager, simple as that. I don’t take any five or 10 percent. I’m committed to help Mick maximise his earnings.”

However it’s not always an easy to switch between that roles of manager and mum.

“He (Mick) is not too bad at all actually, but he prefers me to be mum than manager so I do have some trouble talking to him about management things,” she joked.

The 2010 Drug Aware Pro ran from 16–21 March and was a mens and womens qualifying event.