According to The Guardian, three-time world surfing title holder Mick Fanning was competing for his fourth win during the J-Bay Open in South Africa when the scary ordeal happened.
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The shark attacked, knocking triple world champion Fanning off his board just as a wave rolled through and hid him from view as Wilson frantically began paddling to the rescue.
Fanning was competing in the final of the J-Bay Open, a competition that brings together the top 34 surfers on the World Surf League professional tour.
Mick Fanning says he will surf again after surviving a shark attack off the coast of South Africa.
“I couldn’t sleep all night after I watched it”, says Kaleo Roberson, a Maui surfer who was attacked by a tiger shark past year while he was holding his son in his arms.
But he admits he needs to overcome “an emotional, mental sort of trauma right now”.
According to the Associated Press, Fanning’s mother, who watched the competition live on television in Australia, wept as she told Australian Broadcasting Crop.
He fought back. The shark may have thought Fanning could hurt it. And I felt like I have my board still, and I could just get to him, and I just felt like I wasn’t moving at all.
“It’s a place I used to go as a kid on summer vacations”, she told United States of America TODAY.
The World Surf League cancelled the remainder of the event.
“We took so much from the ocean and I think that was they kind of letting us know that they’re there and how insignificant we are and how powerful they are”, said Wilson.
“I was trying to weigh up the situation and he was getting wrestled off his board and a wave came between us…”
Fanning escaped with a severed leash on his surfboard.
Fanning was picked up by basic safety boats and was unharmed.
He said after he saw the fins, he waited for the teeth of the shark to appear. “Instantly in my mind I knew what was happening and then he disappeared”.
“I instantly just jumped away”.
This morning, the gang over at “Fox and Friends” spent a minute chatting about the video, as well as the recent spate of shark attacks on swimmers at beaches in North Carolina.
“I bet if Mick could have walked on water he definitely would have”.
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Julian Wilson also spoke to media this afternoon about the attack, saying he was “frozen” at first.
