Surfer Peter Forsyth heard the paddle boarder cry for help shortly before 7am on Saturday at McKenzies Beach, near Batemans Bay.

"I was coming in on a wave and heard him scream," Mr Forsyth said.

"He was only about 20 metres from the sand. I thought he had been stung by a ray.

"As I got closer, I could see big bite marks and blood coming out of his leg.

Mr Forsyth believes the man had been standing in waist deep water, ready to jump back on his paddle board, when the shark struck.

"The shark grabbed him. He tried to kick it off with his other foot. It was latched onto him and he kicked it off."

With fellow surfer Danny Freeman, Mr Forsyth helped the man ashore and gave first aid.

"He was pretty tough," Mr Forsyth said. "He said, 'well, that's ruined my weekend'."

The two surfers washed the wound and used a towel and gaffa tape as an improvised pressure bandage.

"We had to tie it tightly to stop the bleeding," Mr Forsyth, who is also a life saver, said.

"They were quite deep perforations - it was quite nasty."

The man refused the offer of an ambulance and drove himself to hospital, where he was later discharged.

"I think he was in a bit of shock," Mr Forsyth said.

Visibility was poor and neither surfer saw the shark.

"It is just a guess, but it could have been a small bronze whaler or a bull shark, that was maybe three or four foot long."

He and Mr Freeman immediately returned to the water for another hour of surfing.

"It is the luck of the draw. You go into their environment and if you get bitten, you get bitten," Mr Forsyth said.

"But I did not paddle anywhere near where he got bitten."

Mr Freeman said he had been surfing at the beach since 1990 and had not heard of a shark attack.

But he alerted parents who frequent the popular swimming spot to what had happened.

Life savers closed McKenzies, Rosedale and Malua Bay beaches as a precaution.

Mr Freeman said the injured man did not want his name published but had contacted him to say he was OK.

Batemans Bay Post