Surfer's narrow escape from shark at NSW beach
A surfer has had a narrow escape from a shark at a beach in northern NSW where a teenager was bitten just months ago.
Footage caught on Coast Cam at Cabarita Beach at 7.26am today shows surfer Brad Ross in the water alongside a dark shape, before splashing.
The attack lasted only seconds and surfers around Ross were not immediately aware of what was unfolding.
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Video posted on Facebook shows the surfer standing with the remains of the board on the beach. Nine
Ross was uninjured but a massive bite was taken from his board.
Witness Kane Douglas described seeing an "explosion of water and foam".
"One part of the board went that way, his board was still attached to him," Douglas said.
"The first thing I checked for when he started saying 'shark' was blood in the water."
Grace Shaw told 9News she caught a wave moments before the attack.
"We both looked at the wave and I got it, and it was amazing and then I looked back to paddle out and his board's in pieces and his mate's like, 'Mate are you okay?' and he's like, 'I don't know what happened, it just blew up'," Shaw said.
"I was just like, 'I'm okay, he's okay, if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die'."
The shark took a large bite out of the surfer's board at Cabarita. Instagram/@jamesonsurfboards_
Moments later a great white shark, approximately five metres long, was spotted on drone footage.
Within hours, a nearby drum-line snagged a shark fitting that description but it broke free before it was able to be tagged.
Shark expert Dr Daryl McPhee from Bond University said sharks were expected in the area at this time of year.
"We expect white sharks in that northern New South Wales area at this time of year following the bait fish and also following the whale migration," he said.
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Experts will likely examine the bite to determine the size and species involved. Instagram/@jamesonsurfboards_
Surfing great Kelly Slater expressed his disbelief about the lucky escape.
"How does it bite that much and miss the guy? Insane!" he wrote in an Instagram comment.
Cabarita Beach is south of Kingscliff, just south of the NSW-Queensland border.
The beach was closed by the local Tweed Shire Council today.
Mayor Chris Cherry said surfers seen in the water later that day were taking an "unnecessary risk".
In June, a 16-year-old boy was hospitalised after an encounter with a shark at the same beach.
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