Nine-year-old surfer attacked by “giant” shark near site of fatal Great White mauling of swimmer

"When I came back up, I saw a giant back and I realised it was a shark and then I started screaming for help."

Ten years ago in the quiet little south coast NSW town of Tathra, ocean swimmer Christine Armstrong was disappeared, literally, by a 12-foot Great White a few hundred feet from the beach.

Her swimming cap, a pair of goggs and a “quantity of organic matter” was all that was recovered.

“It consumed her basically,” her husband Rob said.

Fast forward to last Thursday, and a nine-year-old kid is real lucky to be alive after a shark, likely a Great White, maybe a bronzie but a big one, attacked him, latching onto the tail of his little board.

“I was holding onto it [my board] and I felt a tug at the back of my board,” Bowie Daly told the national broadcaster. “I suddenly started drowning but I got back up … it only happened for a second. When I came back up, I saw a giant back and I realised it was a shark and then I started screaming for help.”

Bowie’s daddy and pals helped get the kid to the beach, the only damage the ruination of his Sharp Eye and a hole in his wetsuit.

“It made a giant bite mark … it fully took out my fin,” the nine-year-old said. “My board was fully into pieces … fully wrecked. It was not good.”

Former tour surfer Kai Otton has since offered to give the Bowie a new board.

In March, a study found there had been a 773% increase in Great White attacks on surfers since protection began in 1991.