Aspiring young surfers at the South Shore Surf Camp have questions and comments after a shark bumped three-time world champion Mick Fanning off his board Sunday in South Africa as he waited his turn during the finals of the J-Bay Open World Surfing Competition.
Kids gather every morning under the orange surf tents on Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts. They learn how to carve the waves and read the ocean- but talk on the beach quickly turned to sharks and their surfing hero.
"If you're into surfing enough, he's Mick Fanning. He's the three-time world champion. He's going to get back out, I know it. He didn't really get injured, he got a little scrape on his knuckles. He'd probably be a little more scared if he got cut up or something," said Graham Wayland, a young surfer.
"To see him get knocked off of his board and really physically attacked like that, I was shocked. It was terrifying," Camp director Kyle Shaw said.
Shaw had his own run in with a great white shark off Nausett Beach on Cape Cod.
"I was frozen stiff and then it swam by, I thought I was in the clear. What haunts me he turned back around again and that fin went down and it thrashed its back fin," Shaw explained.
Any fish tale is fun to share, but keeping these young surfers feeling safe on the surf was the mission of the councilors.
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"You throw out there, people are killed more by falling coconuts than sharks and you kind of reassure yourself. It helps me too as much as it probably does them," said camp councilor Luke Ryan.
To track sharks in your area, click here.
