Elite paddleboarder Charlie Verco has only seen one shark bigger than the one he saw on Saturday at Sydney’s Coogee beach.

The North Bondi athlete was training for the world championships in Hawaii in July on Saturday morning when he heard a swimmer shouting “shark”.

As he headed towards the area of water where about three people appeared close to a large grey shadow, several swimmers attempted to climb onto his 18-foot (5.5 metre) paddleboard.

“I’m familiar with shark behaviour and it looked like it was just being inquisitive, it didn’t look like aggressive behaviour,” he told Guardian Australia.

Verco, a trained surf life saver, attempted to signal to the lifeguards on shore, hoping they would sound the shark alarm and clear swimmers from the water.

“But then another woman started screaming, and I could see she was being dragged around by something … there was a lot of blood in the water, it was quite shocking,” he said.

“The shark surfaced, I saw its dorsal fin, it was big, about three and a half metres, I’ve only ever seen one shark bigger than that and that was a tiger shark in Hawaii.”

Verco said the woman disappeared, then reappeared. The shark released its grip and he managed to get her to grab hold of part of his board.

“But then I think she lost consciousness, she couldn’t hold on anymore,” he said. “I had to try and keep hold of her with one hand and keep paddling towards shore with the other.”

Verco said it seemed like forever before the shark alarm went off and he reached the shallows with the woman. She was brought ashore by a number of bystanders.

In reality, he says, paddling her back to shore “was probably only about three, maybe five minutes”.

A spokesperson for New South Wales Ambulance said the woman suffered arm and leg injuries and had been taken by road to St Vincent’s hospital.

Multiple crews treated the woman on the beach after the attack, which occurred just after 11am. The woman, who is in her 30s, was in a critical condition on Saturday evening.

A SLSNSW spokesperson said on Saturday all beaches from Bondi to Maroubra had been closed and would remain closed for at least 24 hours.

Chief executive Steve Pearce said it was the fourth serious shark incident in Sydney since September 2025.

“We are sending our best wishes to the woman involved and her family at this time, after another terrible shark incident on our coastline,” he said.