Mick Fanning cannot wait to tackle 11-time World Champion Kelly Slater in his home waves at the Quiksilver Pro at Coolangatta.
The Australian is fully fit and well rested ahead of the season-opening event, having suffered a neck injury that ruled him out of the season ending Pipe Masters in 2011.
The two-time winner of the event, in 2005 and 2007, is coming up against the man that has claimed the title three times, in 2006, 2008 and last year, but said home advantage could play a part.
"He (Kelly Slater) has his faults and he is beatable," Fanning said.
"A lot of the time he just gets off to great starts and then it's hard."
"He's just like anyone else and you've just got to go out there, concentrate on your own game and just know you've done the work needed and hopefully it all comes together at the right time."
"I guess being the first event and being at home, it's pretty cool just watching everyone else just trickle in. One day you'll see one guy and you know it's on in a few days."
"I love to see how everyone is surfing and I think that first day of the event everyone's done all their pre-season, they've done all their work on boards and fitness."
"It's really exciting the buzz going around, it's a new year so the excitement's pretty amazing," he said.
The 30-year-old admitted his end to 2011 was less than ideal but he said he was ready to go in 2012.
"I needed to take some time off and relieve some pressure on the neck," Fanning said.
"It was definitely a break I needed. I was feeling pretty stale and pretty close to burnout towards the end of the year."
"But everything has been good, I had a few weeks off and didn't really surf all that much."
On the Pro, Fanning is clearly excited about the Coolangatta surf.
"It pretty much has everything, the barrel behind the rock and then you come out and you can either do turns all the way down for another couple of hundred metres or get barrelled again," he said.
"There's so many different varieties and so many different ways to surf the wave which at some places isn't the case. Everyone likes it too and that's always good."