Three-time world champion surfer Mick Fanning had to beat off a shark with his hands when he was attacked whilst in the water during competition.
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CNN further reports that organizers of the J-Bay Open, the sixth stop of the 2015 Samsung Galaxy World Surf League Championship Tour, had called off the tournament for fear of the surfers’ safety.
Kelly Slater is saying his friend “clearly” saw a shark in the water several hours before Mick Fanning was attacked.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has reflected the horror felt by many of his compatriots who woke up on Monday to terrifying vision of local surfer Mick Fanning being attacked by a shark while competing in a tournament in South Africa. “Just thought of more of an emotional, mental sort of trauma right now”, he told reporters after touching down in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon.
“All of [a] sudden, I just had this instinct that something was behind me”, Fanning told the World Surf League in an interview.
“I was just praying that he was going to be there, not underwater or blood everywhere”, he said. “We nearly just watched our friend get eaten by a shark and I’m just blown away that there’s no damage at all”.
“I turned around to make sure it wasn’t following me”, he said.
The World Surf League promptly stopped the competition after the Australian surfer was attacked by the shark.
Wilson was paddling toward Fanning and later said that he believed if he could get there with his board, he’d at least have a weapon to distract the shark, which he estimated was at least twice the size of his mate and childhood hero.
“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 saw the whole thing thrashing around, but I was getting dragged under by my leg rope”.
“It could be the thing that gave me the courage to just head for him”. It was Marshall Flanagan, a surfing enthusiast, who suffered a shark attack in 1976.
“I bet if Mick could have walked on water he definitely would have. I was like, I don’t know what to do”, he said.
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A wave obscures what happens next, but when Fanning comes back into view he is still swimming away, this time without his board. “Like I said he was just a warrior, so thanks bud”, he said.
