White Lightning

New tome The Immortals of Australian Surfing celebrates the greatest ever Aussie board-riders from the past 50 years. This month, we deep dive into the gnarly, and sometimes poignant, career of one of the modern era greats - the legendary MICK FANNING...

- By Phil Jarratt

It’s a peculiar irony that a surfer of such incredible natural ability and tactical cunning as three-time world champion Mick Fanning will always be best remembered for the worst day of his life. “I will never forget the day,” he told a media outlet a few years later: “It was Sunday, 19 July 2015, and I had woken up feeling great. I was in South Africa competing in the J-Bay Open, the sixth event on the World Surf League [WSL] Championship Tour. I was in the final against a really close mate, Julian Wilson. The winner of the event would take the ratings lead in the world title race, and I really felt like I was on my way to victory that day. Around four minutes into the final, things got.. interesting. A great white shark appeared. Things happened so fast. I punched and kicked out at the shark, trying to get away. I thought I was going to die. I guess everyone watching on from the beach that day, and on the live broadcast all over the world, thought the exact same thing.”

I was one of those viewers, watching from Australia very late on a Sunday night, and I will never forget that long, drawn-out moment either. The night had started out so promisingly, settling back with a cup of tea to watch the all-Australian final in perfect downthe-line conditions. While Jeffreys Bay can often look grey and imposing, on this glorious afternoon of blue skies and clear green water it looked positively benign – and then all hell broke loose.