A colleague of Slater's at London Estate Agent's told NCANewsWire he was too shocked to say anything.
Brisbane's Tim Follett told the Courier Mail he had been walking around the idyllic Greenmount headland when he saw the chaos unfold.
"It was like the whole beach just froze. There was a lady screaming, it was horrible," he said.
Lifeguards are today patrolling the water via jet ski and the Westpac helicopter is in the air as beaches remain closed between Burleigh Heads and the New South Wales border.
Tate said the strip of coast would remain that way for the foreseeable future.
"Once we know the shark is not in the vicinity or we have tracked it, then the beach will be reopened," he said.
"We need to know that before we make our next move."
Jade Parker tried to save his fellow surfer. Speaking on Channel 7's Sunrise he said he had retrieved the board, finding the tooth still lodged in the board's fibreglass.
"The tooth had snapped off in the board itself," he said.
"It was obvious it was a white pointer."
It's the first fatal shark attack on a Gold Coast beach since the shark net program was introduced in the 1960s, and comes just three months after Tugun surfer Rob Pedretti was attacked off the Tweed Coast.
Tate said a 60-year gap between the incidents had been "pretty good", considering the 70km stretch of coastline on the Gold Coast.
"A lot of my friends are surfers, they tell you a lot of stories about close calls," he said.
"We'll take a deep breath, and analyse the best solution available.
"Until I really see what is the reasoning on this attack I can't assess the situation any further.
"Maybe there's better solutions and we'll look at that."
