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A SURFER bitten by a shark while riding a wave off the NSW north coast earlier today is recovering in hospital.

The 26-year-old man's lower left leg and foot were lacerated in the attack off Shelly beach, near Ballina, a Lismore Base Hospital spokesman Robin Osborne said.

"As I understand it he was actually bitten on the lower leg," Mr Osborne said.

He said doctors would keep the man in hospital overnight and assess his injuries in the morning.

"He managed to raise the alarm with his friend, he swam towards shore, got back onto his boogie board and his friend came in and then went out and actually assisted him back into the beach," Inspector David Driver said.

Paramedics who airlifted the man for treatment at Lismore Base Hospital said his friends were initially unaware of the attack.

"He was catching a wave when the shark bit him ... he didn't see the shark at all," Westpac Rescue Helicopter pilot David Milnes said.

"His mates didn't even know what happened."

Mr Milnes said the surfer was conscious and talking during the flight to hospital.

No one seems to have seen the shark to identify its size or species.

He was dragged off his board and underwater as the shark tore through the soft flesh of his calf.

Matt suffered severed ligaments, tendons and nerves before teeth hit the bone in his lower leg.

Doctors have told him he may not get any feeling back on the sole of his foot.

"It just hit me like a sledge-hammer," he said.

"Then I couldn’t feel my leg."

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Shark Attack

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surfing , scary , shark , shark attack , shark bite