Mick Fanning has returned to the water for his first surf since fighting off a large shark at a South African break.
He paddled out near his Tweed Heads home on Saturday morning, six days after he made global headlines for bravely grappling with a large shark on live TV during the final of a world surfing tour event at Jeffreys Bay.
"First surf back. Feels so good. Surfed by myself but had Andy in my thoughts. Happy Birthday brother," Fanning wrote under a silhouetted photo of himself looking out to the ocean, which he posted on Instagram.
The three-time world champion returned to the ocean on the birthday of the late US surfer Andy Irons, a fellow world champion, who died of a heart attack in 2010.
Fanning's picture had garnered more than 26,000 likes and been retweeted more than 200 times by his fans just one hour after he posted it.
"Well done Mick and Happy Birthday Andy thanks for watching over Mick for us," fan arzelombardi wrote.
Jz2Cooldude said he was stoked about Fanning's post.
"I'm about to go for my own first surf since last Sundays incident.... will be good to throw off the monkey," jz2cooldude wrote.
Craigparryphotography simply wrote: "I knew you would be straight back into it mate."
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