When the lights and the crowd noise subside and Milan guard Stefano Tonut has time to do something different than basketball, he is drawn to the sea and fishing, a pastime he learned as a boy.
Stefano Tonut, Milan: 'Fishing brings out strong emotions'
Interviews
9 Mins read
Basketball is a passion for every single player and coach in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, but during the off days, and especially in the off-season, it comes time to get away from basketball and enjoy other things. Everyone looks for ways to relax, both mind and body, and some indulge in other hobbies. For EA7 Emporio Armani Milan guard Stefano Tonut, that other hobby is saltwater fishing.
Tonut developed his love for fishing at a very early age, as a little boy in his hometown of Trieste, a city on the Adriatic Coast.
"My passion was born when my father used to go fishing and I went with my family following him," Tonut remembers. "My father had a little boat and I went around with him. Through the years, I started going by myself, both fishing from the seashore and on the boat."
Over the years, it turned into a serious hobby and a true passion for Tonut, who now has a boat of his own and finds time, mostly during summer, to roam the Adriatic Sea. He either fishes close to Trieste or goes to a neighboring Croatia.
"I have some favorite places, especially in Croatia. That’s very close and there are fantastic places, with beautiful water to relax and enjoy fishing," Tonut says. "During the summer, I have more time to relax and to experiment new fishing techniques and new places."
And make no mistake, there is far more to fishing than just throwing a hook in the water. From following the weather, to the type of fish you try to catch, the bait to use and depth at which you try to catch fish.
It's like a chess match where you try to outsmart the fish. And once you do manage to catch it, it is a battle to pull it out, especially if it is a big one.
Tonut is proud he had some of those battles over the years, like when he caught a 65-kilo tuna or a leerfish that was just below 20 kilograms.
"Catching a 65-kilogram tuna was amazing," Tonut says, his eyes widening. "With tuna, you fight with your legs, you squat a lot. I battled with it for 25-30 minutes. With such big fish, you don't decide anything. It is the fish that decides where it goes, and then you react to everything."
The Milan guard explains that it was a catch-and-release situation, because of the limits Italy has on tuna fishing, but that makes no difference to the entire experience.
Taking such victories against the fish bring a lot of joy and satisfaction, as well as a big rush. All are feelings that Tonut is very familiar with from playing in packed arenas and hitting big baskets. However, he says that fishing brings a different type of rush than basketball.
"Those emotions while fishing are different from those in sports, but fishing brings out strong emotions because on the other side you don’t know exactly what you caught. A fish on a hook at the end of the string of your pole brings the sensations, the emotions and the adrenaline that gives you desire to try to do it again and again."
To draw more parallels to basketball, there are many disappointments in fishing, too.
"Sometime you lose a fish, then you want to re-try. But you never know if and when a fish will bite, so you must be patient," he says.
From planning out days, to catching big fish, or not catching anything the entire day. The preparation and the wait. The rush and the disappointment. All of it combined is a great joy that fishing brings for Tonut.
"It's a type of yoga, something you do for stress, to clear your mind," he says. "You don't feel anything, you just hear the sea. You think about the fish, but you don't think about anything else. You can even stop and just enjoy listening to the sea.
"Enjoying the sea and the water is also something that relaxes my mind and my body."
With a super-busy season schedule and living in Milan, far from the sea, Tonut will need to wait for the next summer to enjoy his passion again, but he knows that every minute of it will be more than worth the wait.