Bite Club: What made Victorian man get back in water after shark attack at Port Campbell

One moment, surfer Michael Higgins was enjoying a secluded Port Campbell beach break, the next he was facing off a shark in the fight of his life.

Mike Higgins survived a shark attack eight years ago, Picture: Tim Carrafa

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Surfer Michael Higgins was in the waters off a secluded beach break with some friends near Port Campbell when he felt something brush past him.

“Next thing I looked down and there was a large fish hanging off the end of my foot,” he said.

Except it wasn’t a fish. A sevengill shark ­measuring ­“five or six feet long” had just left a gaping wound in his foot.

“It bit me across the arch at the top of the foot … and then just swam off,” he said.

He and his friends paddled back to shore where they used his leg rope as a tourniquet to stem the flow of blood.

They drove him to a nearby hospital but staff called an ambulance to transfer him to Geelong for surgery.

“I required, I think, 25 or 30 stitches,” Mr Higgins said.

Mike Higgins was injured off Port Campbell

Shark attack victim Mike Higgins’ injuries

“I had a couple of tendons severed in my foot that my big toe sort of dropped.”

Looking back on the 2012 encounter from which he fully recovered from, Mr Higgins considers himself lucky and explains the shark that bit him “only have teeth on their upper jaw”.

“It was an inquisitive sort of nibble, so it wasn’t pursuing me or hunting me in any way,” he said.

“I know a guy locally here that got bitten really badly probably 35 years ago and I think he got about 350 stitches … so I really dodged a bullet.”

It’s this mentality which helped the Ocean Grove architect return to the water not long after his attack.

“I rehearsed getting back into the water a lot mentally before I actually got back in,” he said.

“I also did a bit of swimming and I tested my mental composure a lot before taking the plunge.”

Mike Higgins keen to get back into the surf at Barwon Heads Picture Tim Carrafa

Now more than eight years later, Mr Higgins said the attack hasn’t had a negative impact on his relationship with surfing and simply made him more aware of his surroundings.

“There is definitely shark activity but it’s just one of those freak occurrences really,” he said.

“One of those random things that happens to people.”

“I didn’t see myself as a victim in any way; it was just a bit of bad luck.”

Even earlier this year when he spotted a shark of the same species swimming at the very spot where he was bitten, he refused to go home.

He simply moved to a different location on the beach.

“I wasn’t going to let it beat me.”