Mick Fanning: Moment Gold Coast world champion surfer was attacked by a shark in July 2015

World champion surfer Mick Fanning was waiting for a wave when he felt something grab his leg rope and he “saw the fin”. RELIVE HIS MOMENT OF TERROR IN OUR FLASHBACK

Mick Fanning saw a lot in his long career as a professional surfer.

One of the so-called Cooly Kids, he won three world championships, secured more than $2m in his career and became one of the Gold Coast’s best-known exports.

The man known as “white lightning” came devastatingly close to tragedy 10 years ago next week while in the water during the JBay Open.

It was July 19, 2015 and Fanning was in the water for the finals of the South African event in which he was facing off against fellow Aussie Julian Wilson.

The event was being broadcast live around the world and viewers watched on as Fanning floated in the water waiting for the next set of waves.

The moment Mick Fanning was attacked by a Shark at the Jbay Open on July 19, 2015 in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa. (Photo by WSL/World Surf League via Getty Images)

Suddenly, a large black fin appeared behind him. Fanning recalled the moment he realised he was being attacked.

“I was just sitting there, I was just about to start moving and then I felt something grab … get stuck in my leg rope,” Fanning said while on a boat being taken back into shore after the attack.

“I instantly just jumped and he kept coming at my board. I was just kicking and screaming.

“I saw fins. I was waiting for the teeth.

“I punched him in the back!”

Speaking on the beach afterwards, the clearly shocked surfer opened up further.

“I was just about to start paddling again and all of a sudden I had this instinct that something was behind me. Then I started getting pulled under water and the thing came up and I was on my board and it was right there and I saw the whole thing, it was right there. I was getting dragged under by my leg rope,” he said.

“I felt like it was dragging me under water and then my leg rope broke so I started swimming and screaming … I just can’t believe it, I’m just tripping out.

Mick Fanning was left stunned by the attack.

“Mate, I’m happy to not even compete again. To walk away from that, I’m just so stoked.”

Fanning’s mum, Liz Osborne was watching live as the event unfolded.

“I just stood up and ran over to the television and wanted to pull him out of the television,” she told the Bulletin the following day.

“I just thought when that wave came (when Fanning disappeared from camera view briefly) that he was gone but then everything was all right and I was just so thankful and so proud of Mick and so grateful that he didn’t have a leg missing or anything.

“We always say in our family that we never give up and we never give in and he didn’t,” she said.

“He is such a fighter.’’

Ms Osbourne was put on the phone with her son shortly after he returned to shore.

“I just said: ‘You’re not going to do the final are you?’ He said: There’s no way I’m getting back in the water yet’.’’

Fanning’s future in the water appeared up in the air but, upon returning to Australia, he revealed he would make a return.

“Yeah, I’m sure I’ll go surfing,” he said at the time.

“Surfing has given me so much. It’s something I do to clear my mind, it’s something that gives me peace.

“I’m sure I’ll go back out.

Fanning returned to the ocean

“It was so close. I’m doing OK, though. I haven’t got a scratch on me. Just sort of more of an emotional, mental sort of trauma right now.”

Fanning was praised by many surfers, including fellow former world champion Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew.

“His survival skills were amazing, he fought so quickly – it was an amazingly brave act,” he said.

“I was so scared when I saw the shark make the pass and come at him again – it was so dangerous, he was in mortal danger and all I could do was just hold my breath. I could not believe what I was seeing.”

Originally published as Mick Fanning: Moment Gold Coast world champion surfer was attacked by a shark in July 2015