The 2013 Quiksilver Pro France winner is Mick Fanning. With the final day of action moving back up north to the peaks at Le Penon, the final 8 were forced to adapt their surfing to tricky onshore conditions that somewhat favoured the aerialists. But Mick’s strong display of powerful, lightning fast turns still proved too much for the young Brazilian challengers.

Putting together a historic fourth win, this makes him the most decorated surfer of the event’s 12-year history but, perhaps more importantly, his first event win of the year and a dangerous sign of gaining momentum.

“I’m pretty emotional, I never really got into rhythm until this morning so it feels great,” an ecstatic Fanning stated. “It just feels so good, Gabi is such an incredible kid, even with 20 seconds to go I was still under pressure, it just feels so good.”

With Medina in the lead in the dying moments of the finals, the two-time world champ stuck to his game plan to eventually steal the show with an excellent 8.83.

“Conditions deteriorated towards the end, but I was a little lucky with that last wave I guess. Gabriel and Filipe have just been going so big, I just thought I’d stick to my game and it sort of paid off towards the end,” Fanning continued. “I watched them flipping around in the air, they have no fear and go so high it’s incredible, I wish I could start again with new ankles and try to do some airs like that.”

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE FINAL RESULTS:

1- Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.66
2- Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.00

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE SEMI-FINAL RESULTS:

SF1: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.10 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.03
SF2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 17.87 def. Filipe Toledo (BRA) 12.93

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS:

QF1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.77 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 13.60
QF2: Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.00 def. John John Florence (HAW) 13.77
QF3: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 16.37 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 11.40
QF4: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 15.70 def. Julian Wilson (AUS) 12.00