"The most exciting time in the history of the sport right now."
The story of how Mick Fanning fought off a giant great white shark in the J-Bay Pro finals is leading all major news organizations, from NBC to ESPN to the BBC to ABC to NPR! And it truly is a wonderful one with wonderful footage to go along with. The punch! The thrashing! The open relief on the boat afterwards! Joe Turpel’s, “Holy shit…excuse me.” Pete Mel getting the interview like he is a Vietnam journalist, bombs whizzing overhead but eye on the prize. Amazing!
And Mick’s apocryphal glow will grow and grow and grow. He fought of a great white shark! He is a winner (even though BeachGrit’s pick Julian Wilson is in his second final in a row and don’t look now!).
And the WSL is an equal winner. The J-Bay Pro, if you notice, is nude. It is the J-Bay Pro. Unsponsored. Unembraced by the corporate hug. How livid are all those corporations now? The news story that will play all Sunday long only has the WSL’s smiling (embarrassing and silly like wrestling) logo shining on all.
WSL CEO Paul Speaker recently said, “This is the most exciting time in the history of the sport right now.” I mocked him, openly, suggesting that he took ecstasy. But maybe he didn’t! Maybe he saw the uptick in shark incidents and saw J-Bay on looming on the calendar and saw Mick’s blazing right hand and saw victory.
Maybe.
Inside job brah!
Maybe surfing a yellow board in JBay wasn’t the best idea afterall, check the MythBusters episode testing colors with sharks:
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Mick’s a robot, all machinery needs to reset to factory setting now and again…
Paul Speaker’s vision is now complete
And Creature of Leisure stock skyrockets!
Loving the traction this story is getting with main stream media. Will this prevent more people from learning to surf? Let’s hope so.
That Damn shark F-ed up my fantasy score on WSL. I had both Mick and Julian on my team.
Haha. Yeah I was hoping Julian would win an rocket into first place dropping Adriano to 2nd
Chill fellas, this was not an attack, barely an investigation from a shark that got stuck in Mick’s leash and attracted by his yellow board ( sharks do not see yellow, only contrasts). If it had wanted to attack Mick, we wouldn’t have seen any fins, it would have attacked vertically coming from deep and Mick would be gone.
Chas, what a great fucking choice the picture of Aqua to illustrate this article!
I’m curious why you find it necessary to split this hair?
Damn. I saw this on Jordy’s insta this morning before I paddled out and was convinced for a second it was fake. Fucking crazy. Fucking crazy.
Seriously though, Julian paddling as fast as possible to get there is pretty badass.
Massive amounts of new respect for Mick and Jules from me, that’s for sure.
if i see anyone giving him shit for tearing up in his post interview i will personally fly to their house and deal with it, so much respect for Julian & Mick. Absolute Legends
I tempted to give him shit for being a sook, just for the fact I’d love to see you fly to my house… I know it would be far easier to drive the 180 Kilometers, but you landing in a plane in the paddock next to my house would be pretty impressive.
I reckon I could take you, you’re not as tough as that beard would suggest
We could have a type-off on the keyboard?
Shark attack and then people getting smeared over the reef at chopes should boost the WSL revenue.
An added bonus should be the thinning of most surf line ups for the next week or so.
Yeah Chas!!! Yeah Great White!!! Yeah Mick the shark puncher!!!