The diver bitten by a shark off Protea Banks in Shelly Beach on Friday morning, is Renier Kruger (26) from Umtentweni in KZN.

Speaking from his hospital bed, the former Suid Natal High learner says that ‘it’s not nice to know what actually happened, but again I have to accept what had happened’.

He explains it was a typical day at work and that they had planned to do two dives. Their first dive was a baited dive, and this was when the incident happened.

Kruger says the dive started great, having two bull sharks around the bait ball.

“It didn’t take me long to get a residential oceanic blacktip by the name of Smiley onto the bait ball. As we progressed into the dive [about 30 minutes] she decided to come from behind and bit onto my right hand while I had my hand tucked in against my buoyancy control device,” he explains.

Kruger says that as he saw his hand inside her mouth, he thought he knew exactly what was going to happen.

“However, I was proven wrong and I didn’t lose my hand. I had my girlfriend Alicia Leonhard right beside me, and after Smiley let go of me, she attended to me immediately once we got onto the boat.”

Kruger was taken to Hibiscus Private Hospital and was in theatre for five hours.

He says he is still not 100%, and he isn’t sure what is wrong with his hand but he was told the operation was a success.

Kruger adds that he is still waiting to see the doctor who worked on his hand to get feedback from him.

“A big thanks to everyone involved in helping me on the boat, especially David van Vuuren for getting me back to the beach with no time wasted and having the emergency team ready on the ramp.”

Kruger concludes by saying that he didn’t have bait in his hands and neither was he reckless on the dive.

Watch the moment shark attack survivor returns to shore: