Former world surfing champion, Mick Fanning, of Australia had a brush with a massive shark while surfing in the final of the J/Bay Open on Sunday.
Video footage shows a large fin in the water right behind Fanning before there's thrashing in the water.
The incident brought an abrupt and dramatic halt to the final just five minutes into the forty minute heat.
Event spokesperson, Paul Botha, said Fanning was was dragged under the water by a large shark.
"It seemed like the shark got entangled in his leash and dragged Mick under the water and the leash eventually broke. There was thrashing around a Mick and his board were about 20m apart and he started swimming towards the shore," Botha said.
"The safety boats were in there within 30 seconds and chased the animal away. The jet skis picked both Mick Fanning and Julian Wilson up out of the water and obviously the event was immediately suspended," he added.
Botha said the surfers would meet with the event commissioner from the World Surf League on Monday to decide how to progress from here.
He said the two surfers were sent for a medical check-up for trauma and shock.
"This is not a thing that has happened before on a World Surf League event so obviously we'll be setting precedents so we'll take it step by step," Botha said.
He described the shark as a "really large animal" but added that "they're always there."
"The good thing was that the moment that Mick had the incident Julian Wilson had just caught a wave and he paddled straight over to go and try to help him because obviously Mick didn't have his board anymore. The safety boats were in immediately and the whole thing was over in just 30 to 45 seconds. But, nevertheless very traumatic for everyone concerned including the few thousand people on the beach and there was live footage of it."
Fanning said afterwards that he punched the shark in the back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-cE7FJUVw4
