Mick Fanning Shark Attack: Mom Watched In Horror, Thought ‘We’d Lost Him’
Australian surfer Mick Fanning’s mom watched in horror as his son was the victim of a shark attack while on live television, and said, “I thought we’d lost him.”
Fanning’s shark attack is all the talk on social media, after the star surfer was surprised by what is said to be a Big White shark, while competing in the J-Bay Open off the coast of South Africa on Sunday. If viewers and other competitors were horrified watching the attack on live TV, Elizabeth Osborne was numb and reminded of losing another of her children 17 years earlier.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought we’d lost him,” Fanning’s mom told ABC News in Australia.
The images in the video are harrowing and show Mick Fanning fighting for his life as a shark’s fin is seen right next to him. The camera loses sight of Fanning after a big wave comes around, but then he is seen, frantically swimming towards other boats, who were coming to his rescue. Later on, while safely away from the predator, a visibly shaken Mick Fanning is seen bent over in relief at the narrow escape.
His mother says she saw the entire event unfold before her eyes and she walked towards the television as if to “pull him out” and rescue him. She expressed how proud she was of her son.
“I was absolutely terrified. I went over to the television almost as though I could pull him out… to save him.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought we’d lost him.
He phoned me not long after and said, ‘I’m fine, don’t worry about me’, (but he was) very shaken of course.”
The Fannings suffered the loss of Mick’s brother, Sean, in a car accident almost 17-years-ago and the memories of that horrible day struck his mother as she watched helplessly.
“When Sean was killed in the car accident, I didn’t see it. I saw this just in front of me. It was just terrible.” Osborne said.
Mick Fanning’s mom is grateful her son escaped with no more than a fright from the shark attack. Surfrider Foundation Australia chairman Brendan Donohoe said he was thankful Fanning was fine as well, though he believes the shark did not intend to attack him.
“It was extraordinary vision to see a surfer of that caliber and that notoriety actually wrestling with a shark. It is mad. (The shark) certainly wasn’t, to my mind, in attack mode at all.
This is clearly an incident, it’s not an attack. If the shark was attacking, Mick would have massive injuries if not loss of life. It was the shark I think coming up to investigate what was going on.”
Donohoe insists these incidents are rare in the big scheme of things, and so-called “shark attacks” are nothing but mistakes made by the animals.
“Sharks occasionally attack, but most of the time they attack they don’t finish off their prey at all — they taste it and move on,” he said.
Once Mick Fanning reached the coast and was out of the water, he was clearly relieved. Fellow Australian surfer Julian Wilson, who was out on the water with Fanning at the time of the shark attack — and paddled towards the animal to save his rival — said he could not get to Fanning quick enough.
“I just saw the fin — I didn’t see the teeth, I was waiting for some teeth to come at me as I was swimming. I punched it in the back.
I saw the whole thing just thrashing around… I punched it a couple of times, but I felt like it was dragging me under water.
Then all of a sudden my leg rope broke and I was swimming and screaming.”
Mick Fanning’s shark attack is one of the most incredible things seen on live TV lately, and his mother couldn’t be more grateful that he escaped alive.
[Photo by Cameron Spencer / Getty Images]
