Surfer who fought off shark competing again

The Austrailian, 34, is looking to make his competetive return in the seventh stop on the 2015 World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour.

The veteran surfer says he again saw a shark’s fin in the waters during the competition in Tahiti, but for him, it’s all part of the dangers of surfing.

The story on the opening day at the Billabong Pro Tahiti was that a strong southerly and misty conditions were making the waves choppy with few good barrels to be found and it was a matter of wave selection being key.

It happened July 19 during the J-Bay Open in South Africa.

Fanning added that he is done with last month’s hype, prioritising his current performance over media attention.

“Having Mick (Fanning) in my heat I knew that any mistake would cost me so I was just trying to play smart and it went well so I’m happy”.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t know exactly what was going to go through my head”, Fanning said in a videoblog entry posted online, describing the mild nerves he experienced before his return to competition.

“It was really tough out there and there wasn’t too many opportunities”, he said.

Currently in a tight race at the top of the world title standing with Brazilian Adriano de Souza and fellow Aussie Julian Wilson, Fanning said he felt confident about his prospects of bagging world title number four.

Wilson, who attempted to paddle towards the shark and Fanning in the J-Bay lineup, also won his first round heat, holding off Hawaiian Sebastian Zietz with a 10.66 score to Ziet’s 9.00.

Aritz Aranburu only gained entry to the event at the iconic Teahupo’o reef break after Australia’s Matt Banting withdrew with injury, but he made the most of it when he pulled off the third-round upset on Tuesday.