A FORMER Huddersfield man used his life-saving training to rescue his son after he was bitten by an eight-foot shark.
Charles Lindop, who left Huddersfield for Australia, was out surfing with 15-year-old son Andrew in waters close to a Sydney beach when the shark attacked.
The pair were enjoying an early morning surf when Mr Lindop heard his son's screams and turned to see what was happening.
As he was in the water, the shark, identified as a 2.6-metre great white, bit into Andrew's leg from the thigh to the ankle, snapping the bone and tearing muscle.
With blood pouring from his leg, the stranded youngster was grabbed by his dad who had first-aid training.
Despite the shark still being around after the attack, Mr Lindop fearlessly got hold of his son and managed to push him to shore.
Once on the sand, Mr Lindop and others were able to create a tourniquet to try and stem the bleeding from his son's wound.
"There was nothing it just came up from underneath me almost ... it was quite sudden," Andrew said to reporters in Australia.
"It felt like I'd been pushed by something really sharp that just dug into my leg and just ripped me off my board."
The teenager said he didn't know what would have happened if his father, a trained lifesaver, hadn't been with him that morning.
"I usually don't surf with my dad ... it was like one in fifty surfs I had with him," he said.
"He may have actually scared the shark away again ... I'm proud of him."
Mr Lindop said that he'd kept thinking why Andrew and not him.
"I don't want it to be my son, why the bloody hell couldn't it have gone for me and not him," he said.
"All I wanted to do was get him in as fast as I could ... shoving him on a wave and paddling as hard as I can to catch up with him.
"Its probably the longest 75 metres he and I have ever paddled in our lives."
Mr Lindop said his actions would be the same as any father faced with the such a situation.
"Throughout all of this Andrew's composure was absolutely incredible and that's what I'm in awe of," he said.
"Fortunately I had a level of training but I defy any dad out there not to do the same thing."
Andrew said he was looking forward to getting back in the water.
"I've got it in my head it's not going to happen to me again," he said.
Following the attack on, Andrew initially underwent four hours of surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital, where he remained for nine days before going home.
The attack on Andrew was the third shark attack off Sydney in as many weeks and led to calls for the Government to do more to combat the threat.
