Despite having eyeballed a bloodthirsty predator with a taste for human flesh, Mick Fanning has stood his ground. But enough about the press pack. Let’s talk shark, Fanno!
As if it was not enough he came face to face with a great white shark in South African waters on Monday, Fanning then had to walk through a ravenous media scrum up to five journos deep asking him again and again “what was it like?” And that was just on the way to a press conference at Sydney airport.
Having being ignored by Fanning at Gold Coast airport many times as a cadet journalist, your correspondent noted he would not have loved the reception.
But, looking as if he had not slept since his tango with the “big old fish”, Fanning tried to satiate the media by sitting down for almost an hour and answering every question.
Which all turned out to be variations on “what was it like?”
The words “emotional”, “harrowing” and “traumatic” were used more than once. Fanning was open about tears coming upon him more than once since the attack. Ronnie Blakey, the surfer’s manager, described the hours after as like being at a wake but with the deceased sitting right next to you.
It was not quite the typical laconic surfer return some had anticipated, though Fanning did manage to crack he would say “thanks for not eating me!” if faced with the shark again.
The atmosphere was a cross between a carnival and a business transaction, with Blakey chairing and asking the room of about 150 journalists and publicists to give Fanning – and fellow surfer and would-be rescuer Julian Wilson – a round of applause as they walked in.
Journalists at the press conference included those who can normally be found at court hearings, royal commissions and political events in New South Wales, as well as sport reporters, whose ranks just about every media outlet thought needed to be bolstered for the day. The television stations and a couple of newspapers had also sent multiple journalists and camera crews to get footage of Fanning walking through arrivals.
Such was the grandness and oddness of the press conference, that even veteran television reporter – A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw – clapped the pair in as she stood to get a better view.
The questions were repetitive but echoed the disbelief Fanning himself can barely shake. What was it like? Did time speed up? Did time stand still? What was he thinking? What does he feel now?
“I’m quite anxious to get back home,” Fanning said.
And shortly afterwards, the media satisfied for now, he was granted his wish.
