Surfer Mick Fanning Has Second Shark Encounter During First Swim Back In Water [Video]
Pro surfer Mick Fanning is a brave man. Only weeks after he was attacked by a great white shark, the surfer returned to the waters – only to have a second close encounter. The first shark attack left the surfer rattled, so he hopped back in the water the second doctors told him it was okay. Fanning returned to the sea to jet ski with a friend.
According to People magazine, the surfer was “already on edge” because of his first shark attack, and in an interview with Good Morning America, Mick confessed that he’s had nightmares about the shark attack and has plans to seek counseling.
Surfer Mick Fanning encounters another shark first time back in water http://t.co/rSs8XqxTlb pic.twitter.com/9jqc2vIy88
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 3, 2015
The surfer was at Hastings Point and was jet skiing with a friend when Mick spotted the fin of a second shark very close to him.”I was lucky that I was…on the back of the Jet Ski and I was actually looking at another wave to catch,” Fanning told Good Morning America. “I was okay. I went in and regrouped.”
This was the surfer’s second brush with a great white shark in the past two weeks, according to Australian newspaper The Courier Mail. Fanning is now a household name after a July 19 video of the surfer went viral. In that video, Fanning fights off a great white shark during a live surfing competition in South Africa.
In order to put the nightmares behind him, Mick decided to return to the water quickly, but got more than he bargained for when a second shark appeared. “I just didn’t want to leave it too long,” the pro surfer told Good Morning America. “I felt like if I left it too long, I would start playing tricks with myself and having too many mind games go on, so I just really wanted to get it done pretty quickly.”
Elizabeth Osborne, the surfer’s mother, was watching her son on television when the second shark encounter occurred. Osborne also saw the first shark attack on TV and told reporters she went to the screen as though she “could pull him out of the television.”
“With mom, you sort of just smile and laugh a little bit and make sure that’s she okay and then just run away before she can grab you again and hold you in,” the surfer told Good Morning America. Fanning is now back at the gym and getting ready for the Billabong Pro Tahiti, a World Surfing League competition that begins on August 14.
“Everything is starting to feel like it’s moving in the right direction and I…hope we get some really good waves over there,” the surfer said, shrugging off his second shark encounter.
[Image credit: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images]
