Recovering in hospital after being attacked by a shark isn't anyone's idea of a pleasant way to spend Christmas - but if you came within minutes of death, making it to the operating table and into a bed might seem like the best gift ever.
That is how Craig Bovim, 35, described his feelings on Thursday. He was attacked by a "huge" ragged tooth shark 50 metres off Scarborough beach on Tuesday.
Bovim estimates the shark to have been at least three metres long.
And while he was left to contemplate his close shave with death, members of Western Province Lifesaving (WPL) decided for a second day to limit swimming at Fish Hoek after more shark sightings.
WPL chairman Clive Wakeford said lifebuoys were put in the water at Fish Hoek to ensure that bathers did not venture out too deep.
"In general we think it is safe to swim in the water, but it is better that we play it safe," Wakeford said.
After Bovim was attacked, WP lifesavers spotted two large Great White sharks near the shore at Fish Hoek on Wednesday.
Bovim, who runs his own pipeline company, has been diving for crayfish and surfing at Scarborough, where he lives, for 17 years.
His father, Tor, told the Cape Times that his son "lives for the sea".
In all those years, Bovim had not had a dangerous encounter with a shark.
"I have seen them many times and been close to them, but I have never felt in danger," he said.
Just after noon on Tuesday, Bovim noticed a ragged tooth shark swimming "very close" to him and decided "to try to swim away very slowly".
The shark followed him for about five minutes.
Bovim's mother, Adelle, said her son knew he had to try not to make any sudden moves, but a wave had surprised him and filled his snorkel.
"He told me his head jerked up and that is when the shark attacked," she said.
"At one point both his arms were down the shark's throat and he was fighting it off with his knees."
Once he had wrestled free, Bovim saw that the shark had caused "extensive damage to my arms and I did not know whether I would make it back to the beach because I had to swim through kelp".
Once on the beach a close friend of Bovim's, Mark Botha, called Metro Rescue Services while a doctor who lived in Scarborough, Charlotte Noble, began treating the wounds.
"If it weren't for the fact that the doctor was on hand on the beach, it would have been tickets for me," said Bovim.
He was airlifted to the Vincent Pallotti Hospital and arrived there an hour after the attack. Doctors operated on him for four hours on the evening of Christmas Day.
Hospital spokesperson Estelle Jordaan said the doctors - orthopaedic surgeon Brian Bernstein and plastic surgeon Dehan Struwig - believed Bovim would regain the full use of his arms.
The retired founder of the Great White Research Project, Theo Ferreira, has offered to use his boat to patrol beaches where sharks have been spotted.
He is to put this proposal to Marine and Coastal Management on Friday.