This actually happened. Photo: WSL
I had to look away. Once the shark hit, and Mick Fanning was pushed off his board, below the waterline, surely there was only one outcome. And I wasn’t going to watch.
Legends were made over the next few seconds. Julian Wilson, one of Mick’s closest friends, his protege and fellow J Bay Pro finalist, sprint-paddled towards Mick. Mick’s board was gone. His leash had been bitten in half by the 8- to 12-foot Great White, and for the next few seconds he was at its mercy, floating helplessly in the opaque ocean, as the water patrol rushed to his aid. Julian was the closest man to him and didn’t need to think twice. He was going to help. How exactly, he wasn’t sure. Maybe he’d distract the shark, maybe he’d give Mick something to float on. Anything. He was ready to die for his friend.
“I saw a little wave pop up behind him and I thought he was gone. I couldn’t get there quick enough. I had my board…I was going to stab it. Whatever, I had a weapon,” said Julian afterwards, stuttering, as he broke down.
As the shark spun and twisted in Mick’s leash, the three time world champion chose to fight, punching the huge White twice in the back. With his board gone, Mick could have swum for his life but instead chose to stay and front up to his predator. “I just saw it taking my board away and I started cracking (punching it),” he recalls. “I was gonna swim away and then I was like this thing is gonna come at me, I’ve gotta go again.”
There are several schools of thought about what to do in the event of a shark attack. No doubt Mick is aware of all of them and in this scenario selected the perfect approach, as you’d expect from a watermen of his caliber. He fought the shark, punching it and then facing up to it to assert his dominance. Sharks have no natural predators. They are not used to being attacked. But having the mettle to confront an enemy you can’t see, with a pair of food-sticks for weapons, is no easy thing.
When pressed to estimate the size of it, Kelly put it at between eight to 12 feet. Commentator, Todd Kline was of the opinion the shark was intent on killing Mick. It came in with its mouth open ready for attack but instead got a mouthful of Fanning’s leg rope and became disoriented.
The reaction on the beach was one of pure shock; an equal mix of tears and laughter. Surfers have a strange way of dealing with things like this. We treat sharks as a joke for the most part. A guilty truth that we don’t care to properly acknowledge because to truly explore what it would be like to get eaten alive would be to completely suck the fun from surfing. Today we were forced to face up to the harshest truth of our existence, live, on the big screen. Even then I refused to watch.
There have been many deaths of famous sportsman beamed live around the world, but none that I can think of in which an athlete was devoured live. The closest I can come up with was the horrific goring of matador Jose Padilla back in 2011, beamed live around the world, as a bull skewered him through the jaw and dislodged his eyeball.
But the prospect of being eaten alive is something surfers have been forced to confront more and more. In Reunion Island, home of one of the best left’s in the world and the former site of the Rip Curl Pro Search World Tour event (which Mick Fanning won back in 2005), surfing has been banned since 2013 due to a run of attacks. South West Australia, home of the Margaret River Pro World Tour event, is currently the fatal shark attack capital of the world. While on the NSW North Coast, where Fanning grew up, shark paranoia is at an all-time high following two attacks in two days earlier this month, coming on the back of another fatality earlier this year.
Great White Sharks remain an endangered species in Australia and South Africa, along with Namibia, the Maldives, Malta, the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard and Gulf Coast (including Florida), and the coast of California. And yet despite this, we exist in a total vacuum of reliable data when it comes to actual great white shark numbers and behavioural patterns.
As the adrenaline ran its course, the laughter began to return. Kelly joked that he and big wave legend, Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker had spoken about paddling straight back out into the lineup at J Bay to enjoy the fun conditions with a pair of shark zappers for comfort (electronic devices designed to deter sharks).
Mick, too, had moments of laughter. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he crawled onto the back of the ski in the moments after. He chose laughter and a brave face as he returned to greet his Tour rivals at the contest site. But eventually the truth broke through and he in turn broke down. “I’m happy to not ever compete again. To walk away from that I’m just so stoked,” he replied, amidst tears when asked about re-surfing the J Bay pro final to decide the winner. – Jed Smith
