Australian surfer Mick Fanning narrowly avoided a shark attack for the second time in three years in South Africa on Wednesday.
Fanning, 36, was competing in the quarterfinals of the J-Bay Open in Jeffreys Bay in South Africa's Eastern Cape against Brazilian Gabriel Medina when both athletes had to be pulled out of the water.
Australian television footage showed the reported 8-10 foot Great White swimming around 600 meters from where Fanning and Medina were surfing. Both were pulled from the water; when they returned to competition Medina eliminated Fanning to end his chances of defending his title.
Mick Fanning has had another shark scare at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa. #sun7 pic.twitter.com/55m8KnjmA4
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) July 19, 2017
"Look at that thing, that thing is a beast, at least they saw this one. I am glad they got us out of the water," Fanning said when he was shown the footage later in the day.
"Those things are just submarines, however long they are, the roundness of them as well ... they are big, big beasts."
The incident came a day after a mako shark was spotted in Jeffreys Bay 90 meters behind Filipe Toledo, the 22-year-old Brazilian surfer.
In 2015, Fanning had a far closer encounter with a Great White, again in Jeffreys Bay in the same competition. That time, he punched the shark and managed to swim away before providing some indelible quotes. "I just saw the fin, I didn't see the teeth. I was waiting for the teeth to come at me as I was swimming... I punched it in the back," Fanning said of that attack. "I just can't believe it. I'm just tripping. To walk away from that, I'm just so stoked.
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