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A teenage surfer credits his quick-thinking mates for saving his leg, after he was bitten by a shark at a NSW beach.
Julian McLennan, 16, was surfing at Old Bar near Taree on the Mid North Coast when the Christmas Day attack happened around 4.30pm.
"I was sitting out the back, surfing, going over a wave and I just feel someone grab me," McLennan told 9News.
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"I look to the right and I see a massive fin coming out of the water and, like, its the body of a shark.
"I start paddling in. I have no clue if I have a leg still and I'm just looking at Alex, and I'm just freakin out," he recalled.
Julian immediately yelled out he'd been bitten to his mate Alex Tobin, who was also in the water but closer to the beach.
"I just seen a giant splash came out of nowhere," Tobin told 9News.
"I ran to shore, grabbed my shirt so he can wrap it around his leg to stop the bleeding."
Friend Will Anderson had been surfing with his mates but decided to get out early.
He was in the car park when he got the call.
"At first, I didn't believe him," Anderson told 9News.
"I was thinkin, 'oh yeh' but no, just the panic in his voice set off alarm bells in my head."
He drove them all to hospital, deciding not to wait for an ambulance.
"Just thought the ambulance would have taken too long to get out there and, not knowing how bad the bite actually was, I just wanted to be on the safer side and get moving as quick as we could," Anderson said.
Gory images clearly show the teen's leg punctured by deep tooth marks.
The bite was just a few centimetres from McLennan's femoral artery – that few centimetres is the difference between life and almost certain death.
The 16-year-old feeling lucky that his board took most of the force of the bite.
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"If I didn't have the fin on the surfboard, it probably would have taken my leg."
"I was just hoping it wouldn't come back after it let go."
Julian's shocked mother has nothing but praise for his quick-thinking mates.
"They did what they needed to do," mum Nichole Gore-Lenskyj told 9News.
"They didn't freak out. They helped their mate, it's what true friends are."
Julian says he'll stay out of the water for now – but not forever.
"I'm still a bit shocked, but you know, we'll get there."
