Mick Fanning goes swimming with Sharks on The Sunday Project

It was a moment that left the sports world in awe, now Aussie surf champion Mick Fanning is facing up to one of nature’s biggest predators.

Aussie surfing legend Mick Fanning will more than likely go down in the public consciousness as the guy who survived a shark attack on TV.

Not his three World titles over a 17-year career, but one moment on July 19, 2015.

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In the water with fellow Aussie surfer Julian Wilson for the final of the J-Bay Open in South Africa, what was suspected to be a great white shark swam up and bit Fanning’s leash as he escaped.

Fanning called the incident “a wake up call” in an interview with news.com.au after winning the 2015 GQ Sportsman of the Year award.

“For me I was really appreciating everything I was getting and everything that I was doing; I felt like it was starting to build and then it was like, ‘here you go, deal with that’. It’s just a different sort of world.

“I guess the one thing it sort of did was just made me appreciate the love and everything that I got from family and friends – even still, going around the world and seeing people I haven’t seen (since it happened), it just makes me appreciate those sort of people and just that support.

“Sometimes in the past I would shrug it off and say, ‘don’t be silly’, but now I embrace it.”

It’s still crazy to see five years later.

While he was quick to get back in the water, it also sparked an interest in sharks in the star.

After wrapping up his career in 2018, Fanning wanted to do more.

He’s now filming a documentary called Save the Shark for National Geographic Australia at told Tracks Magazine that he wanted “to get a better understanding of what really happened to me in J-Bay.”

But diving off the Neptune Islands in South Australia, Fanning invited The Sunday Project’s panellist and comedian Tommy Little to his first dive with sharks.

“For me it’s a bit of a personal journey obviously had my incident back in 2015,” Fanning said in the segment to be aired tonight.

“I heard a splash behind me and from then on I was just trying to get my board in between me and the shark and then once it knocked me off and I got dragged underneath by my leg rope a little bit it was like uh-oh and then it sort of came back around and the last thing I saw was my board just sailing off into the sunset on its fin.”

Fanning, despite being five years on from the incident and starring in a documentary about sharks, said he is still “100 per cent” scared of sharks.

Mick Fanning gets up and close with sharks...again.

But he also believes they have copped a bad wrap.

“When I did have the incident I wanted to know why,” he said. “I’ve always been a facts sort of guy and I just couldn’t find anything so this is why this journey has been exciting for me.

“People just think they’re these crazy man-eaters and they have these huge teeth but I think there’s more to them I think we don’t have enough research on them. They’re the apex predator of the ocean, they’re the ones that make sure that everything is flowing perfectly in the ocean.”

He said he hopes the documentary and the interview encourage people to experience sharks for themselves, rather than just thinking of them as ruthless killing machines.

“People are gonna watch this and go they’re crazy what are they doing that for but until you actually get down and you see the way they move and you see how majestic and how powerful they are you can’t get a real appreciation,” Fanning added.

Remember, Mick Fanning was also a three-time world surfing champion.

Life has been good for Fanning outside of the water as well, proposing to his long-time model girlfriend Breeana Randal.

It’s another big life moment as the pair were taking a photo shoot for their child due in August.

The Sunday Project, Tonight 6.30pm on 10.