Mick Fanning Relives Fight with Shark: “I Was Swinging”

Here’s the play-by-play:

“The final had just started. Julian Wilson, who I was competing against, had just caught a wave. I was just sitting there. I went to paddle up the point a bit, and I just heard a splash behind me. Next thing I know, I’m entangled with a shark. It bumped me. As it went through, it got stuck in my leg rope. It’s thrashing. I’m trying to put my board between me and the shark. Then, all of a sudden, I get this whack from the tail to my head. The shark then circled back, and it had bumped me. The last thing I saw was my board on its fin just drifting off. I just started screaming.”

And how about the brawl? Did Mick get any shots in?

“I thought, ‘let’s fight it.’ I went into fight or flight mode,” Mick said. “When I was trying to get my board, I was just swinging. And then after, I was like, ‘yeah, I punched it!’ I was just so high on adrenaline. Then when I got to the beach, I was just bawling my eyes out.”

But it didn’t stop there. The incident stayed with Mick for a while; it left a lasting imprint.

“I realized…that could’ve been it," Mick recalled. "We had a party the next day, and it was sorta like going to your own wake. The weeks afterwards were the hardest. It would come back to me in dreams. It was always anywhere from 2:00am to 6:00am. I would wake up just kicking the sheets off. I didn’t really have anyone to talk to. It wasn’t until I spoke to a friend who was in the military, who had a thing with a landmine. He told me, ‘It’s like when you almost get hit by a car crossing the road. You’ve still got to get on with life.’ That’s how I’ve come to look at it. I’m very fortunate.”

Closest call in surfing history? Maybe so.