It brought back the memories and intense emotions of his own lucky escape from a juvenile Great White, which took a bite out of his leg in the Nambucca River on an autumn morning some 14 years ago.

"I heard the news this morning (Monday) as I was driving down to the beach for surf," Richard told the Guardian.

"My first reaction was complete incredulity and then the intense desire to share it ... and then the laughter, the relief, because he was okay.

"And when I actually saw the footage, I could so empathise with the weird way the whole scenario is almost comedic.

"His initial awareness, his fending it off, his swearing, all that primal stuff that kicks in - I remember it for myself, that intensity together with the sense of being out of your body and watching it all unfold.

"My own adrenalin really kicked in when I saw him separated from his board, in the water and completely vulnerable - that feeling of fear is so strong ... and there is absolutely nothing you can do."

Richard said he felt complete empathy with Fanning when he was bent double on the back of the jet ski afterwards.

"You are flooded with feelings of horror and relief as the realisation of what just happened sinks in ... it is such a bizarre mix of emotions."

He said the wave of emotion that swamped Fanning's friend Julian Wilson when he was interviewed afterwards was another powerful moment.

"You could see the intensity of feeling so helpless, unable to do anything for his friend."

Unlike Fanning, the bite was real with the scars still there today.

However, like the world's number one surfer, he knows he is one of the lucky ones - who lived to tell the story.

"The experience was certainly not a pleasant one and it really shook me out of that bubble we all live in," Richard said.

"But it also made me feel so intensely alive - and absolutely clear that life is to be lived and not to procrastinate!"