To be perfectly perverse for a moment, the most tasty piece of media exposure competitive surfing has ever received is Mick Fanning’s run-in with a shark at South Africa’s Jeffreys Bay last weekend.

Fanning fronts the media immediately after his brush with death. Photo: AAP

Suddenly, the whole world, from Bondi to Boston, Malibu to Moscow, is hearing about pro surfing and, more importantly, watching it as Fanning’s too close encounter of the scariest kind is played out online and on television again and again.

At the time of writing, views of the incident on YouTube alone had topped 18 million – and by the time you read this it will no doubt be millions more.

When Fanning, Australia’s new international action hero, and his compatriot and fellow competitor Julian Wilson, arrived home on Tuesday they were paraded before more than a hundred local journalists who asked the same questions they had already answered.

“How do you feel?

“What were you thinking?

“What’s next?”

This was a feeding frenzy minus water and shark.

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Fanning, 34, a three-time world champion from the Gold Coast, and Wilson, 26, from the Sunshine Coast, seen by many as his Aussie heir apparent, looked tired and more than a little bewildered by it all.

Julian Wilson and Mick Fanning face the media with Red Bull refreshments in hand. Photo: Getty

Still, they played the game, clutching cans of their sponsor Red Bull’s energy drink – a way too blatant plug. What a caffeine-charged fizzy drink headquartered in landlocked Austria has to do with surfing and a shark is anybody’s guess, but the media pack didn’t bother to ask that one.

Just to complete the marketing synergy, Wilson wore his Red Bull cap while Fanning’s sported the logo of Rip Curl, his long-time principal sponsor and a couple of surfboards behind them were emblazoned with all the appropriate signage.

The near tragedy that has morphed into a marketing opportunity, for both sponsors and professional surfing, has stirred up reaction on Australia’s most visited surfing website, swellnet.com.

Swellnet’s editor, Stu Nettle, admits the hard fact of the shark incident is that it gives professional surfing’s new governing body, the Los Angeles-based World Surf League, or WSL, a much needed chance to boost the sport’s struggling international profile.

WSL took over the pro circuit, both men and women, plus qualifying tours, at the start of this year after they had been managed for more than 20 years by the Association of Surfing Professionals where the competitors, not guys in suits, drove much of the agenda.

But as the circuit continues its wander around the world – from Australia to Brazil, Fiji to South Africa and now on to Tahiti followed by California, France and Portugal with the final showdown in Hawaii in December – WSL is still to come to grips with how to expand its audience.

Events are streamed live on the internet and available around the world, but have yet to gain any worthwhile penetration beyond the hard core surfing markets of coastal Australia, particularly the east coast, California, Florida and Hawaii in the US, plus sections of South Africa and Japan. The one bright spot is beach-mad Brazil where the sport has taken off big time as its surfers make serious inroads into the professional rankings.

Waves like this one certainly aren’t a daily occurrence on the pro surfing circuit. Photo: AAP

So the question is: can Fanning’s shark showdown tempt a baseball fan in Chicago or soccer crazy kid in Madrid to click on the live feed of next month’s contest from isolated Teahupo’o on the southern tip of Tahiti where if the swell comes up big and nasty, as it can, there is likely to be carnage of another kind as even the best surfers in the world face splattering on its razor-edged reef?

Stu Nettle has his doubts. Surfing contests tend to be ad hoc affairs – perfect waves one day, flat as an inland lake the next. Even when there are decent waves, there can be long lulls between them as they tend to come in sets of four or five followed by spells of flatness.

“There’s a disconnect between the imaginary public image of surfing being all about palm trees and perfect blue skies whereas the contests are actually highly regimented with timed heats and hooters and you can end up spending a lot of time looking at the screen, waiting for something.

“It’s simply the nature of surfing, always has been and always will be.”

At a personal level, Nettle is inclined to suggest that Fanning, despite the undoubted psychological trauma in the aftermath of the shark encounter, will front for next month’s contest in Tahiti, as will Wilson.

Surfing legend Kelly Slater comforts Mick Fanning after his dangerous shark encounter. Photo: AAP

He points out that Fanning is a steely character who has overcome his share of adversity – his brother and surfing companion, Sean, died in a road accident in 1998 and he rehabilitated himself after suffering a potentially career ending injury, having torn a hamstring from the bone in 2004.

Going into the remaining contests, he sits second on the rankings – Wilson is close behind in third – and they are well within touch of leader, seasoned Brazilian Adriano De Souza.

“These opportunities don’t come around all that often,” Nettle says. “It’s a long hard slog to get to this point in the year and I don’t see either of them willing to give all that away at this stage.

“It might seem to be an idyllic life, going from wonderful location to wonderful location, but it’s hard living out of a suitcase and keeping your focus and competitive edge throughout it all. But Mick is a proven competitor who knows how it works and knows how to win.”

At age 34, Fanning is in his dotage as a pro surfer, but Nettle believes his sheer determination with see him through a few more years yet.

Mick Fanning memes have exploded across the internet.

While he keeps winning, and sponsors like Rip Curl and Red Bull keep backing him, why would he quit?

“WSL says it wants to sell a narrative, tell a story that goes beyond just who wins whatever heat, and Mick’s encounter in South Africa has given that chance,” says Nettle.

But the hard question lingers. Once the shock horror of the images from Jeffreys Bay fade into the digital whirlpool of instant gratification and 10-second attention spans, will Chicago and Madrid give a damn?

* Mike Safe is a former writer at The Weekend Australian Magazine and a surfer for more than 50 years.