Murray Adams, 64, underwent the surgery to save his life after being bitten on the leg by a shark near Elliston, north west of Port Lincoln, yesterday.
Friends of the school teacher said Adams was lucky to have survived such an attack after he suffered serious wounds to his upper leg.
The local maths teacher had been surfing at a break called Blacks, which has been notorious for shark sightings.
Yesterday’s attack happened about 1pm, a few hundred metres off shore.
Despite heavy bleeding, Adams was able to paddle in and scale the cliff before a friend drove him to the local hospital before he was flown to Adelaide.
“He got attacked after he caught a wave at the end of the wave,” friend Geoff Goulden told 9News.
“He yelled out to the other bloke shark shark.”
After undergoing emergency surgery, Adams is in good spirits.
Another friend, Chad Fleming, said he was lucky to have come out alive.
“Thankfully Murray doesn’t have too serious injuries and he’s going to make a full recovery,” he said.
The attack is the sixth incident in the state in less than a year.
The local community has been left rocked after the two teachers from the same school were attacked in a matter of months.
“It is close to home,” Fleming said.
“Shark attacks are never nice, it certainly does feel like there’s a bit of a trend at the moment.”
Despite the “beach closed” signs, a surfer was spotted paddling out at the break today, staying close to the shallow rock ledge.
