The emotional response to Mick Fanning’s shark encounter

Yesterday at the WSL J-Bay Open, Mick Fanning was attacked by a shark less than five minutes into the final against Julian Wilson. It was the single most intense thing to ever happen in the history of professional surfing, and you should already have read everything about it here. We, and the rest of the world, couldn’t have been more happy to see Mick’s thumb pointing in an upwards direction. And like all things of an intense nature, it was followed by some very raw and amplified emotion. From the moment that Martin Potter said “Holy shit,” things unwound in a surreal state as the world tried to comprehend what they’d just seen. The video above is 47 minutes long and extremely engaging. It shows Mick and Julian’s reception, which includes much hugging and many tears. The group walk indoors, and a hurried Joel Parkinson arrives. We move to the desk to see a visibly shaken Pete Mel, Todd Kline and Ross Williams, before hearing from Commissioner Kieren Perrow, Mick and Julian, and Kelly Slater.