Last Sunday we saw our collective nightmare unfold before our eyes. Mick Fanning survived a Great White Shark __________ in the final of a World Tour event. (It was very much an encounter/attack – depending on your world view, which has been debated relentlessly here. Kudos for opinions!) But the fact remains: one of surfing’s greats was almost killed on a live webcast – making this probably the most extensively documented and discussed shark attack ever. And the very first in professional surfing.
So we were very genuinely curious to hear more about how the WSL planned to address a previously unthinkable scenario: the very real threat of a shark attack during competition. Will the WSL implement new safeguards? Mick said he’d never surf on July 19th again. How’s he doing? Will the WSL head to Jeffreys Bay in 2016? Surfing has never seen audience numbers like it saw last week. (Mick Fanning surpassed Barack Obama in Google Search last week.) So now that everyone’s at the party, where do we go from here?
WSL VP of Communications Dave Prodan was kind enough to sit down with us to discuss.
“This instance now – it’s unavoidable in conversation,” said Prodan. “And it’s not something we’re going to actively ignore – nor something we desire to actively exploit. It’s just something that happened. The guys are going to be putting their lives on the line in Tahiti in a few weeks, so it never stops.”
Watch the interview above for more insight from the WSL, and tune in as competition resumes in Tahiti on August 14th.
This actually happened.
