Ryan Boarman underwent hours of emergency surgery. Pic: gofundme.com
A man has been mauled by a 6ft-long shark while on a month-long surfing trip to the Indonesian island of Bali.
The shark bit Ryan Boarman through his right arm near the elbow, tearing through muscle, all the way to the bone.
The 24-year-old surfer, from San Diego, California, astonishingly rode a wave back to the beach where friends and bystanders rushed to his aid.
His father, Bill Boarman, told Fox 5: "He was out waiting for a wave and suddenly felt a really sharp extremely painful bite on his elbow.
"Some of the surfers in that area are speculating that it was a bull shark.
"He told me, 'Dad, it was actually a really good wave'.
"He surfed all the way in to the beach and then collapsed and passed out.
"He could have died, he could have lost his arm, been bit somewhere else on his body, but he's incredibly lucky."
Twiggy Van Ryan, an Australian who lives near the beach, described how he helped dress the surfer's wound on Monday before he was taken to hospital.
"It was a pretty heavy wound, maybe four inches either side of the tip of the elbow, basically his whole elbow had gone into the shark's mouth and then was pretty badly damaged as the shark pulled back," he said.
The surfer underwent hours of emergency surgery and doctors were able to save his arm.
His friends have now set up a fundraising pageto help raise cash for specialist medical treatment in Singapore.
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