NSW shark attack victim wanted to drive himself to hospital

A surfer bitten by a great white on the NSW North Coast had a premonition that there was a shark in the water moments before the attack.

Lee Jonsson told 9NEWS he had paddled out for a few waves before work yesterday morning at Shelley Beach in East Ballina.

The father-of-two has been surfing for 30 years so when he saw that other surfers had gone back to shore he instantly thought there may be a shark.

But the others were not trying to wave him in, so he carried on surfing.

"I thought, that's sweet, no shark," he said.

"Then wooshka, just hit me from the side. I did a one-eighty and just looked around and saw it coming back at me."

The 2.6m shark left a 20cm gash in his lower leg.

Mr Jonsson smacked the back of his surfboard into the water in an effort to frighten the great white.

"It was pretty full-on. I thought that was it," he said.

"I was just thinking about these boys and my wife.

"I caught a wave in and was so stoked to be at the beach. When I hit the sand it was just instant relief."

Two of his mates rushed to his aid when he got ashore, wrapping his leg in towels and rope.

"I got in the car and said 'I'll be right, I'll drive'," Mr Jonsson said.

"And they were like, '(You're) not driving anywhere'."

Mr Jonsson underwent surgery for his wound yesterday, and will likely have another operation tomorrow.

"I'm just so lucky it was where it is on my leg, so it's mainly muscular," he said.

"Didn't go the artery or nerves."

But the attack hasn't put him off surfing.

"When this is healed, I'll be back out there," he said.

"Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same spot, hopefully."

Mr Jonsson's survival story comes only a few days after a Victorian doctor was killed by a shark in the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland.