Tim McAndrew survives shark bite off Crowdy Beach in second attack on same afternoon

Hunter carpenter Tim McAndrew still hasn’t seen the shark which latched onto his left leg on the Mid North Coast, less than an hour after a swimmer was hospitalised with a shark bite off the same beach.

Hunter tradie Tim McAndrew had strapped on his leg rope, wet his hair and was about to jump on his board when the impact on his left leg was enough to spin him around in chest-deep water off Crowdy Beach.

But the blood in the water from multiple teeth marks from a shark he still hasn’t seen wasn’t the biggest surprise for him on Tuesday afternoon – it was the swimmer in an emergency ward who had been bitten off the same beach just minutes earlier.

Tim McAndrew was bitten on the leg by a shark in chest-deep water at Crowdy Beach. Picture: Supplied

Mr McAndrew, a 32-year-old father of two from Lovedale, was about to enjoy a sneaky after-work surf with some fellow carpenters after a hard day on the tools when he was targeted by what experts are now suspecting may have been a large wobbegong shark.

“The expert that spoke to me said the jaw marks would have meant the shark was at least two metres long – that is either a big-arsed wobbegong or a pissed off bull shark,” Mr McAndrew said.

“I was just in the process of jumping on my board when I felt it.

Tim McAndrew was bitten on the leg by a shark in chest-deep water at Crowdy Beach. Picture: Supplied

“The only way I could describe it was lick someone had a big weight ball and hit you as hard as they could in the leg.

“The impact spun me around.”

Mr McAndrew said his initial thoughts were that his tradie mates were playing a joke on him before he saw the blood in the water.

He said he hasn’t seen the shark yet.

Tim McAndrew

“I saw the blood and jumped on my board and paddled like hell back in,” he said.

“To be honest, I wasn’t going to stay in the water any longer than I needed to.

“It hit me from behind. I have since been told by some locals that it is a bit of a shark Mecca that joint.

“I wish they would have told me beforehand.”

He suffered a series of puncture wounds to his left calf and ankle.

However, Mr McAndrew said the biggest shock was when he was asked what had happened to him by a nurse at Manning Base Hospital’s emergency department.

“I said I had been bitten by a shark at Crowdy and she said: “not another one”,” he said.

“And there was this guy on the other side of emergency in a wheelchair who came in 40 minutes before me after something got him on the foot while he was swimming a couple of hundred metres out.”

Crowdy Beach near where Tim McAndrew was bitten.

Mr McAndrew said his wounds, where he needed a handful of stitches, had remained free of infection.

And although his wife didn’t believe him when he first rang her on the way to hospital, he was glad it was not more serious.

The wounds on Tim McAndrew’s calf and ankle.

“If I had to get bitten by a shark then this is the best way,” he said.

“I am no marine biologist, but to me this was more about me being in its territory than him wanting a feed.

“It was more of a kiss than anything else.’’

Mr McAndrew said shark experts thought the space between the upper and lower jaw, seen by the teeth marks on his calf and ankle, suggested the shark would have been more than two metres long.

A Department of Primary Industries spokeswoman said a shark biologist had since examined photos of the wounds and “determined that a wobbegong shark was likely responsible”.

The department is yet to respond to questions about the second shark bite on the swimmer.