Locals have said the survivor of a close encounter with an enormous great white shark is "lucky to be alive" after the monster snapped his surfboard in half.

Shark attacks are rare, but Australia sees more than most countries, with an average of 22 shark bites per year between 2010 and 2022.

The surfer was lucky to have escaped the incident unharmed, NSW authorities later confirmed. According to reports, there were several beachgoers at the location when a surfer emerged from the tides with a board that was broken into two.

A surfer’s board in northern NSW has been chomped in half barely a month after a teenager was bitten by a shark at the same beach.