Simply miraculous. Waiting for a wave during a professional surfing competition in South Africa, Mick Fanning was assailed in all likelihood by…a great white shark. On live television. Helpless and temporarily stranded, he fought and flailed — even punching the shark at one point — until a quick-thinking jet skier rescued him.
Frankly, I don’t know how you survive something like that unscathed. He was both surprised by the shark’s presence, and unable to see it after he lost his board. He was in the water for a good 30 seconds, completely vulnerable, before being rescued. Moreover, as recently as two years ago, a surfer was killed in that exact same spot — and yet Fanning lived to tell the tale without serious or mortal injury. No wonder his mother was utterly horrified as she watched on television. Her son’s brush with death could have ended very differently.
"...a big sigh of relief seeing Fanning in one piece."
Also, kudos to this surfer. He helped distract the man-hungry shark from its prey.