Man Explains What Great-White Attack Felt Like

Dion Lynch says it felt like "being hit by a truck." ABC reports he was sitting on his board in the waters off Kangaroo Island, and turned to the left to see what had barreled into him—and saw the shark as it let go. It was a great white, and it had bitten him on the back, buttock, and elbow. That was just the first part of his Sunday ordeal. The New York Times reports that to find help, the 29-year-old paddled ashore hanging on to his board, which also had a chunk taken out of it, then walked roughly 1,000 feet to a parking lot.

A fellow surfer began driving him to the hospital; the ambulance intercepted them along the way. "The stars aligned for this gentleman," an attending paramedic tells 9News. "He had bystanders, he had an off-duty paramedic on scene, he had a full crew of volunteer air ambulance officers." (With 8 shark-related fatalities, Australia is having a particularly deadly year.)