Three-time world surfing champion Mick Fanning says it is a miracle he escaped from his encounter with a huge shark without a scratch but showed signs of the psychological trauma he will have to deal with after his near-death experience.
The 34-year-old arrived in Sydney and faced an enormous media scrum on Tuesday afternoon before heading home to, as he said, give his mum a big hug.
“To walk away from a shark attack with not a scratch on you, it’s a miracle really,” Fanning said.
“I’m doing OK, I haven’t got a scratch on me. It’s more of an emotional, mental trauma right now.
Advertisement
“It’ll probably take a couple of weeks or months to get over. I don’t know.”
Fanning denied any suggestion he was a hero, saying he just did whatever he thought could get him away from the shark.
“I don’t know whether I punched it hard or just a couple of baby punches, but I just went into fight or flight really,” he said.
Fellow Australian surfer Julian Wilson, who was competing against Fanning and came to his idol’s aid, said: “At first I was frozen.
“Mick was looking at me, a big old fish popped up behind him. It was a lot bigger than him. I saw him start to get kind of manhandled by the shark and I was kind of freaking out.
“I wasn’t moving … trying to weigh up the situation. He was kind of getting wrestled off his board and then a wave came between us and I started paddling for him, just fearing for his life.”
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/its-a-miracle-says-mick-fanning-of-his-great-white-shark-escape-20150721-gihbtq.html#ixzz3gVhhdiWZ
WOW, Unbelievable. We are so happy to see that Mick is ok. Canberra First Aid can help you learn how to cope with bleeding emergencies. Get into one of our first aid courses in Canberra soon so that you are ready to handle many first aid situations. We provide a course that is easy to understand and follow but will give you all the basic skills.