The Sydney man had been in the water with mates for about half an hour on Saturday morning off the city’s northern beaches.

The arrival of spring, after weeks of torrential rain, and an easing swell, had sent thousands back to the water across the city.

He was sitting on his board, behind the surf break – about 100 metres from the shore of Long Reef beach, police estimated – when witnesses said he was suddenly dragged under the water , taken by what is suspected to have been a great white shark.

Fellow surfers, who’d gone in to the beach, went back to the water to pull him to the shore, but he had sustained “catastrophic injuries”, police said (losing both legs, according to lifesaving sources), and could not be resuscitated. He had died in the water.

Local media reported that the

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