A Vancouver Island man who was mauled by a black bear Wednesday morning says that the attack was unprovoked, and attributes the yearling animal's behaviour to teenage angst.

Jay Vinden, 57, was sleeping in a lean-to shelter around 7 a.m. in an area known as Taylor Flats at the west end of Sproat Lake, near Port Alberni, when a bear started clawing at him.

"I heard a snort, and I rolled over, and there was a black bear six inches from my face. I could feel his breath," Vinden told CTV News from his Nanaimo hospital bed, where he is undergoing consultation to reconstruct a large piece of missing scalp.

"It seems like as soon as he recognized that I was awake, he lunged with his mouth at my midsection, bit me in the knee, flipped me with one hand like a pancake and pinned me down with his front paws and started to attack my head," he said.

In Pictures: Man survives bear attack

He had a Bowie-style knife at the campsite, but it was just out of reach.

"I started screaming bloody murder."

The screams roused his 48-year-old friend Bruce Doyle, who was sleeping in a tent nearby.

"Bruce pulled the bear off and the bear started to attack him," Vinden said. "In that spare moment, I was able to get to my knife and smack him over the snout with it, and he took off from there."

Vinden suffered scratches and bites on his abdomen and knee, and is missing a piece of scalp measuring 12 cm by 18 cm.

"I might have a punctured skull. I heard a crunch, so I at least have a dented skull," he said. "I'm a tough old coot."

Doyle escaped with other minor scratches and bruises.

Vinden said that he has been camping since he was a toddler, and he and Doyle had cleared the campsite of all food and garbage. He said the bear had visited the campsite several times during their four-day stay.

He attributes the attack to the bear's young age.

"I relate it to humans and teenagers. Unpredictability is part of growing up."

Officers with the B.C. Conservation Service and the RCMP planned to return to the campsite Wednesday afternoon. Conservation officers said they will kill the bear when they find it.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jim Beatty