Hey Mick Fanning we don’t come to your country and punch your sharks mate, be cool.

When you spend half your life dressed as a seal bobbing on top of the water you have to expect to come face to face with a few sharks in your lifetime. What you wouldn’t expect is for that encounter to be on live TV in the midst of a professional surfing event.

The J-Bay Open, taking place at Jeffreys Bay, forms part of the World Surf League and viewers were just getting their teeth sunk into Sunday’s action when Fanning was attacked. Luckily he managed to emerge unscathed although it’s clear from this interview below he was very shaken up by the incident.

Fanning shielded himself with his surfboard and says he punched the shark in the back, prompting it to swim away.

The J-Bay Open has now been cancelled which, I imagine, will come as a relief to the competitors.

[sources:bbc&mashable]