A surfer who was bitten on the leg by a shark says he is lucky to be alive.
Ryan Lowther, 41, said it felt like a “clip of razor blades being stuck into my leg” when he was bitten about 40 metres from the shore at Trigg Beach in Perth on Wednesday afternoon.
He caught his last wave of the day when he was bitten with such force that part of the shark’s tooth became embedded in his lower leg.
He said he didn’t see the shark coming when he bravely returned to the scene of the horrific incident on Thursday.
“I just felt a cracking sound on my leg and it felt like razor blades were going into it,” Lowther said. Seven news.
‘I dove under and when I came back to jump on my board I felt a latch on my leg.
‘I was a bit shocked… I got on my board and caught the wave. I put my wetsuit on and saw blood everywhere.
“I said to a kid next to me, ‘I just got bitten by a shark.’”
Ryan Lowther (pictured below in hospital) said the shark felt like ‘a clamp of razor blades being stuck into his leg’ when he was bitten at Trigg Beach
He said the incident had left him “very shocked.”
Mr Lowther ran out of the water as quickly as he could and when he saw that his wetsuit was covered in blood, he drove himself to the Sir Charles Gardener Hospital.
“They did an X-ray, there was a tooth in there, they cleaned me up, gave me antibiotics and sent me home. They think I’m going to be fine,” he said.
Mr Lowther said it was “not ideal” having the shark tooth still in his leg, but he hopes he will eventually be able to remove it so he can keep it as a keepsake.
He admitted he was “nervous” about getting back into the water and said he felt lucky to have survived.
“I’m glad it wasn’t a bigger shark and I still have two feet, that’s a victory,” he said.
Mr Lowther drove himself to the Sir Charles Gardener Hospital, where he was treated by doctors
The Ministry of Primary Industries and Regional Development said The West that ‘the shark is believed to be small in size’.
The public is asked to take extra care in the area around Trigg Beach.
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.
Three years ago he was surfing at City Beach in Perth when friends on the shore told him there was a large shark fin lurking behind him.
Surfer Ryan Lowther (pictured) admitted he’s nervous about getting back in the water