Surfer 'lucky to be alive after Great White attack' at Byron Bay

Beaches are expected to reopen today after a man was left fighting for life after being attacked by a shark on the north coast of New South Wales yesterday. 

However Surf Life savers have expressed their disappointment that beachgoers were ignoring the warning signs erected on Belongil Beach and Main Beach in Byron Bay and swimming in the potentially dangerous waters. 

Sam Edwardes, 41, was surfing at Belongil Beach with friend Dane Davidson when a "chunk" was bitten from his leg by a shark.

He remains in a critical condition in an induced coma after undergoing surgery for more than four hours. 

Doctors say Mr Edwardes is "lucky to be alive" after the attack.

9 News has confirmed the shark was a juvenile Great White around 2-3m in length.

According to Adelaide Now, this is not the first encounter Mr Edwardes has had with a shark.

His friend Tony Donaghue was swimming in the waters off Hardwicke Bay on the Yorke Peninsula on May 29, 1999, when he disappeared.

It is believed he was the victim of a suspected shark attack.

Yesterday, it was the "heroic" actions of bystanders who helped save Mr Edwardes.

"As soon as my mate got out the back, he sat up on his board and instantly a shark smashed from underneath," the man's friend Dane Davidson said.

"It came up from underneath and knocked him clean off his board. There was a lot of thrashing and splashing. He started screaming.

"I didn't realise until I paddled with him back into the beach and there was a big chunk taken out of his leg. There was a lot of blood. A random bloke on the beach and I jumped in and wrapped ropes around his leg for a tourniquet because the bleeding was bad. Hopefully that prevented him from losing a lot of blood."

He was treated at the scene by paramedics, before being air-lifted to Gold Coast University Hospital where he remains in a critical but stable condition.

The bite to his left thigh missed an artery by just millimetres.

Six people came to Mr Edwardes' aid as they waited for the ambulance.

"The actions of those on the beach could be called heroic," Daniel Willis from NSW Ambulance said.

"They have assisted in controlling the hemorrhage."

Officers from Tweed/Byron Police District will liaise with Department of Primary Industry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.