A prominent West Australian surfer's 'rare' encounter with a shark has been described by a friend who witnessed the attack as a true fight or flight moment, as he undergoes surgery in a Perth hospital.
Max Marsden, 30, was bitten by a shark while surfing with his friend Danny Williams at Lucy's Beach, south of Geraldton on Sunday — the first reported shark attack in the Mid West town in more than a decade.
The pair have been surfing together for more than 10 years, with Mr Williams saying he never imagined they would be confronted with a shark.
"Max was in front of me, and he was just sitting out the back and a shark came out underneath him and attacked him," he said.
Mr Williams said the shark, believed to be a 1.5 metre bronze whaler, pinned Mr Marsden's right arm to the surfboard.
"He punched it a few times. His arm was pretty busted up."
The fight to get the surfer to safety proved tricky, with Mr Williams describing the paddle back to shore as a "surreal" experience.
"He was just paddling, like going through the pain. He handled it like a champ."
"He got up onto the beach and tied a leggy around his arm."
Once on shore, Mr Williams said the remote location of the beach, which is only accessible by four-wheel drive, made it difficult to transfer Mr Marsden to a waiting ambulance.
"It's pretty boggy, so that's why we didn't have the car down there and walked a couple of [kilometres], and lots of rocks everywhere and big drop off and sand dunes," he said.
St John Ambulance took Mr Marsden to Geraldton Health Campus before he was flown to Perth for surgery at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital on Sunday night.
Mr Williams said his friend was recovering well.
"He's still got a few bits of teeth still in this cut, from the sounds of things that just ripped all the muscle off his bone," he said.
"[The shark] wasn't a massive one, but it was big enough to do some damage."
Mr Williams said he'd give it a few days before getting back on the water.
But he's confident when Mr Marsden makes a full recovery, the pair will be itching to get back out to catch a wave.
Mayor Shane Van Styn said shark attacks in the Midwest town were uncommon.
"It is an extremely rare and isolated event," he said.
"The location where the shark attack took place is a very isolated place, so any monitoring of [the shark] would probably be unfeasible."
'A lot of action in the water'
Despite the rarity of shark attacks in the region, the founder of the Geraldton Board Riders Club Leon Norris, who has also surfed at Lucy's Beach, said it had an element of danger to it.
"It's just got this feel about it, you've always got your eyes open and you're always looking around," he said.
"A lot of fishermen go down there and catch a lot of fish, so you know there's a lot of action in the water."
Mr Norris said Mr Marsden had good knowledge of the ocean which would have helped him get to safety.
"Max likes to ride the most dangerous of those waves, that's the way he sets his surfing standards, and he would have handled that situation really well," he said.
"I can imagine he got himself out of that situation with the help of other surfers there who are also good waterman and saved him."
He said the injured surfer was dedicated to his passion.
"He's done amazing things over the years, he's surfed in a lot of major events, and represented Western Australia at the national titles," he said.
