Intro:

Mick Fanning recounted his great escape - the story he will be telling for the rest of his days, about how he fought off a shark with his bare hands during a surfing competition in South Africa.

It sounds like the plot of a movie, but this three-time world champion is no fictional Crocodile Dundee-style character. He's the real thing: his shark-wrestling exploits were broadcast live.

Fanning arrived back in Australia on Tuesday and appeared at a news conference in Sydney before heading home to the Gold Coast, the burgeoning city surrounding Surfers Paradise beach.

Script:

SOUNDBITE, (English) Mick Fanning, Surfer:

"Just reading messages and stuff it sort of brings up emotions like you know it was so close and. Yeah, I'm doing ok though, like you know, I haven't got a scratch on me or eyah it's just sort of more of an emotional, mental, sort of, trauma right now. And it will probably take, probably take, I don't know a couple of weeks, months, I don't know, I don't know how long it's going to take. But I'm just luck I've really good people around me and you know great friends to yeah just pick me up."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Mick Fanning, Surfer:

"I guess someone was looking out for me. You know to walk away from you know a shark attack with not a scratch on you it's like, it's a miracle really. You know I spoke to different people, I actually had dinner with a guy who had been attacked three times and you know, it was just like, yeah you don't know, you just count your lucky stars, and if there is someone up there looking after us, thanks."