A surfer says it felt like a battleship had hit his surfboard when a shark attacked him on the NSW Central Coast.
Justin Daniels was less than five metres offshore having an early morning surf at Shelly Beach when he spotted a shark "thrashing around" underneath him as it reared up and bit him on the hand.
"It felt like a battleship hitting the board," the 42-year-old told the ABC.
Mr Daniels, from Berkeley Vale, luckily escaped the attack with minor puncture wounds to his left hand, but given the increase in shark attacks from four last year to 14 so far this year, is demanding action from the NSW government.
"It is out of control," he told reporters.
"When there has been 10 or 12 shark attacks, they (the government) have to do something about it."
The Baird government last month ruled out any cull of great whites, turning instead to science in the face of the "alarming" jump in shark sightings along the NSW north coast.
Mr Daniels said as the shark attacked he immediately went into "survival mode" and just wanted to get out of the water.
"I saw the tail and the fin. I would estimate probably the same size as my board, six foot. Big enough," he said.
"It happened so quickly it is surreal and hard to explain.
"It easily could have taken my hand or my arm or come back for me, it was pretty frightening."
The father-of-two said he was only three to five metres offshore when the attack happened.
"Any child could be swimming in the gutter, anyone could have been going out for a swim. I wasn't out on a bank or on a reef or deep water area, it was straight off the shore.
"One of the first thoughts is my little daughter is five and she is already scared of sharks."
Later this month shark experts from across the world will convene to discuss potential options to be trialled in NSW waters.
Mr Daniels was treated at the scene by an off-duty paramedic before driving himself to hospital.
His attack comes less than four days after 65-year-old man David Quinlivan was bitten "to the bone" by a great white at Black Head Beach, north of Forster.
Shelly Beach has been closed following the attack.
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