Nobody is going to have a better J-Bay Open than Mick Fanning and the guy didn’t even win. In fact, he never got to make his run.
Fanning is from Australia so he’s no stranger in surfing in shark-infested waters, but he’s never had a visit from what appears to be a Great White shark. While coming in for a bite, it got tangled in his leg line. Fanning is knocked off his board and starts kicking at the shark before both disappear behind a giant wave.
The production crew, realizing they may not want a close up view of Fanning getting cut in half by Jaws, pans out. The rescue boats and jet skis speed in and to everyone on planet Earth’s surprise, Fanning and surfer Julian Wilson, who was also out at that moment, were completely OK. Fanning had battled a shark and won.
“I was just sitting there, I was just about to start moving, and then I felt something grab, just get stuck in my leg rope,” Fanning told a reporter later. “I instantly just jumped away, and then it just kept coming at my board. I was kicking and screaming. I just saw fins. I was waiting for the teeth to come at me. I punched it in the back.”
The J-Bay Open took place in Jeffreys Bay on the eastern Cape of South Africa and one of the most shark-infested areas in the world. It’s the place where the Great Whites famously attack so hard and fast that they’ve been known to acrobatically fly out of the water.
The World Surfing League immediately cancelled the event after the attack. Fanning is a three-time world champion surfer and now world-famous shark-fighter.
“I just can’t believe it,” Fanning said. “I’m just tripping… To walk away from that, I’m just so stoked.”
Stoked he says. Yep, he’s a surfer alright.
