He has left it late but Mick Fanning has made a winning return to life as a full-time professional surfer.
The three-time world champion nailed a 7.17 ride in the dying seconds of Thursday's Quiksilver Pro opening-round heat on the Gold Coast to pip France's Jeremy Flores and American legend Kelly Slater.
Fanning's late score gave him a two-wave score of 13.27 out of 20, handing him victory by less than a point over Flores (13.13).
11-time world champion Slater began the final year of his illustrious career on tour with defeat. He and Flores will have to come through a sudden-death second-round heat at Snapper Rocks to stay in the event.
Fanning only competed in five events last year after an emotionally taxing 2015 that included a marriage breakdown, the death of his older brother and a shark attack during a tour event final in South Africa which made headlines around the world.
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But the freedom gained from his sabbatical proved decisive in his return to full-time competition.
"It's a confidence booster that I can keep my cool at the end," Fanning said.
"That's how I want to go the whole year - just don't worry about the consequences.
"Just going for it when you need to, that's the big plus coming out of that heat."
Another Australian Owen Wright completed his own comeback to the tour after missing all of 2016 due to injury.
Despite fears he might never surf competitively again after suffering a severe head injury in the final event of 2015, Wright dominated his first-round heat against American Sebastian Zietz and Australian youngster Ethan Ewing.
The brother of women's world champion Tyler Wright secured a two-wave score of 16.83 to win by 1.56 points from Ewing.
"That feels great," Wright said.
"Tough journey getting here - I fully enjoyed that moment out there. I've got some real emotions now."
Wright and Fanning move into round three with 2012 world champion Joel Parkinson, 2016 event champion Matt Wilkinson and defending world champion John-John Florence.
Bede Durbidge, making his own comeback from a potentially career-ending injury, narrowly missed out in his heat, pipped by former world champion Adriano de Souza.
2014 world champion Gabriel Medina won his heat but limped away from the competition site with his right knee on ice, putting doubt over his future participation.
