The Australian professional surfer was back on home soil after being attacked by a shark while competing in South Africa.
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Three-time world champion surfer Mick Fanning had to answer that question at a competition event in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa on Sunday.
Australian surfing champion Mick Fanning smiles during a press conference in Sydney, Tuesday, July 21, 2015. She told him she had wanted to rip him right out of the TV screen.
“It’s just something you’ve got to deal with on the water, but I don’t want it to happen again”.
Experts say that is the only thing you can do to survive an attack. “It’s gotten me through the hardest times in my life”, he said.
Surfing legend Kelly Slater, a friend of Fanning’s, said, “I’m halfway between crying and laughing because he [Fanning] got so lucky…”
“I got an email from a friend tonight who said he clearly saw a shark figure in a wave during the quarterfinals from a drone shot”, Slater wrote on an Instagram post accompanying a photo of he and Fanning hugging after the terrifying ordeal.
“I don’t know if I would have made it back to shore if the boats or Jules didn’t come, I think we maybe scared it a little bit”. Like, what? The shark’s gonna be like “OH, that guy has a board and a different kind of outfit – I’d better leave him alone”? I just saw fins.
Fanning and Wilson said they both planned to continue surfing. “Mentally I’m a bloody mess, but I’ll come good in time”.
Surfing, he said, gives him a sense of balance.
‘I’m just so thankful and so proud of Mick and so grateful to the universe that he didn’t have a leg missing.’. His daughter Elizabeth married John Fanning from Malin Head, Co Donegal, in 1968 and they emigrated to Australia in 1971.
Fanning escaped with a severed leash on his surfboard.
She has spoken to 7 News of her horror while watching the attack.
The Water Safety Team also pulled Wilson out of the water. Perrow said that everyone was happy to see Fanning alive and safe.
Fanning stayed in fight mode in the few seconds – which to him felt like an eternity – before Wilson and surf contest organisers arrived. But along with sharks, other non-threatening animals are trapped in the nets, making them an environmental hazard.
“The first thought you have is to get out of their”, he said. Fortunately on that occasion the animal just turned away. Then the shark swam back around for another go.
Wilson is being called a hero for paddling right into danger to try to save Fanning.
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“It was by far the scariest thing I have ever been through and am still rattled”, he added. I’m sure he will go through ebbs and flows of how he feels but I think he’s handled it well.
