Mick Fanning Gives Press Conference, Thanks Shark For Not Eating Him

Mick Fanning and Julian Wilson just landed in Australia, and have immediately been rushed to a press conference in Sydney to speak about the terrifying shark attack at the J-Bay Open in South Africa yesterday. 

“At first I was frozen. Mick was looking at me, a big ol’ fish popped up behind him, that was a lot bigger than him. I saw him start to get manhandled by the shark. 

“I came over the wave, and I was kind of praying he was going to be there, not underwater, and there wasn’t blood everywhere.

I came over the wave, and he was away from his board. The board was 15-20m away from him, and I went straight into panic mode. Like, he’s just a sitting duck now. 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. And I felt like I couldn’t get there in time, and I was just waiting for him to kind of get manhandled again underneath – you know, like what I was seeing when he was on his board, and I was praying that I wouldn’t see that same thing, and even seeing him disappear underwater. 

“It’s such a horrific feeling. I was just fearing that I wasn’t going to be there in time. And I also felt like I couldn’t see the shark, so I also felt that at any chance it could come up on my left side from the angle that Mick started on and have a go at me as well, but I just wanted to try and get my board to Mick. He was turned around waiting for the thing to come up to him, and, if I could get there with my board, I’d have a weapon.”

“I’m doing okay. It sort of goes through waves. Hearing Julian recount it, and reading messages, it brings up emotions.

It was so close. I haven’t got a scratch on me. Just sort of more of an emotional, mental sort of trauma right now.

“It just sort of came up and went for the tail of my board, but then … I don’t know why it didn’t bite. My board is totally fine, too. It just kept coming back. I was on top of it, trying to put my board in between us, and then you saw that footage before the wave, and, as the wave went, my board was sort of off, and I was trying to get to my board, and all of a sudden it came back again, and that’s when I just tried to position myself away from it, to the side of it, and it was just right there, and that’s when … I don’t know if I punched it hard or if it was little baby punches! I just sort of… You know, fought it.

“Even though we’re competitors … we’re still a big family. The boys and the wives, everyone has looked after me so well. I’m just so thankful. I have great friends. I call them family.

“To walk away from a shark attack is a miracle … If there is someone up there looking after us, thanks.”

“Thanks for not eating me.”