Mick Fanning's manager has recalled the shrieks of spectators watching a great white shark attack the three-time world champion and the harrowing belief he was watching his friend die.
Fanning somehow emerged unscathed after fighting off the shark which attacked him while waited for his first wave in the final of the World Surf League (WSL) event at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa.
"You had a huge crowd on the beach. Everyone just letting out shrieks and screams as the shark basically took Mick underwater at one point," Fanning's manager Ronnie Blakey told Triple M.
"We really just didn't know what was unfolding. Everyone was kinda guessing what was happening."
Watching from the shore, Blakey said he believed Fanning wouldn't survive.
"I was thinking we're watching a three-time world champion die. That was the reality of the situation. At worst I thought if he isn't dead maybe he's lost a limb."
Blakey believed Fanning, although badly shaken, would still compete in the next leg of the WSL tour in Tahiti next month, who climbed to a second place in the world title race with his J-Bay performances.
"He is in a fantastic position to have a run at his fourth world title... I think Mick will regroup," he said.
"Everyone at the event believes he's the man to beat in 2015."
Blakey joked that when it comes to Tahiti sharks are the least of the surfer's problems, given the feared Teahupoo surf break with its razor-sharp reef.
"Forget the sharks, the waves in Tahiti is the scariest things you've ever seen."
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