A tradie who was bitten by a shark at a picturesque NSW beach just moments after paddling into the water was the second shark attack victim within an hour.
Tim McAndrew decided to go for a surf at Crowdy Bay, on the mid-north coast, when he finished work on Tuesday.
The carpenter, who had been in the region for work, had just jumped into the water when he felt something hit his board.
The 32-year-old thought one of his friends was playing “silly buggers” and just trying to scare him when he realised he was in danger.
“I was in the water for a minute … I turned around to my right and said ‘what the f**k was that’, then I saw the red in the water and realised I’d been bitten,” Mr McAndrew told Nine News.
He said the shark came and “hit like a bowling ball”, knocking him around before he saw the blood.
Mr McAndrew was bitten on his calf and ankle, with multiple puncture wounds biting into his right leg.
He yelled to his colleagues to stay out of the water and managed to paddle himself to shore.
“The surf wasn’t even that good which makes it worse,” hexjmtzyw told the Manning River Times.
“We just wanted to have a quick surf before we went to dinner at the pub.”
Mr McAndrew was rushed to hospital, where he was told he was the second shark attack victim at Crowdy Bay within an hour.
“I let my wife know, she didn’t believe me,” he said.
“No one really believed me.”
He said two shark attacks in one afternoon at the same place was “pretty hectic”.
While he was left a little rattled by the ordeal, Mr McAndrew said he had only suffered swelling from the bites, which had to be stitched up.
Mr McAndrew never got a look at the shark but suspects it may have been a bull shark.
