A surfer who has bitten on the leg by a shark says he’s lucky to be alive.
Ryan Lowther, 41, said it felt like a ‘clamp of razor blades going into my leg’ when he was bitten about 40m from shore at Perth’s Trigg Beach on Wednesday afternoon.
He was catching his last wave for the day when he was bitten with such force that part of the shark’s tooth became lodged in his lower leg.
He said he didn’t see the shark coming as he bravely returned to the scene of the harrowing ordeal on Thursday.
‘I just felt this crunch on my leg and it felt like razor blades going in,’ Mr Lowther told Seven News.
‘I ducked down under it and as I was coming back to up to jump on my board, I felt this latch right onto my leg.
‘I was in a bit of shock… I dived on my board and caught the wave in. I pulled up my wet suit and there was blood everywhere.
‘I told a kid next to me “I’ve just been bitten by a shark”.’
Ryan Lowther (pictured afterwards in hospital) said that the shark felt like a ‘clamp of razor blades going into his leg’ when he was bitten at Trigg Beach
He said the incident left him feeling ‘super shocked’.
Mr Lowther raced out of the water as quickly as he could and after seeing his wetsuit covered in blood, drove himself to Sir Charles Gardener Hospital.
‘They gave (me) an x-ray, found a tooth in there, cleaned me up, antibiotics, then sent me home, (they) reckon I’ll be right,’ he said.
Mr Lowther said having the shark tooth still in his leg was ‘not ideal’, but is hopeful it will come out eventually so he can keep it as a memento.
He admitted he was ‘nervous’ about getting back in the water, saying he feels lucky to have survived.
‘I am glad it wasn’t a bigger shark and glad to still have two feet, so that is a win,’ he said.
Mr Lowther drove himself to Sir Charles Gardener Hospital where he was treated by doctors
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development told The West that ‘the shark is assumed to be small in size’.
The public have been urged to exercise additional caution in the Trigg Beach area.
Experts are now examining the wetsuit to determine the species and size of the shark that bit him.
It wasn’t Mr Lowther’s first terrifying encounter with a shark.
He was surfing at Perth’s City Beach three years ago when friends back on the shore yelled out to him about a big shark fin lurking behind him.
Surfer Ryan Lowther (pictured) admitted he is nervous about getting back in the water
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