Posted on 07/12/2017 11:30:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
There were only five surfers out at Cowell Beach in a clean waist-high south swell Tuesday afternoon.
The typically packed surf spot was almost empty after a newly posted shark warning prohibited water activities from the San Lorenzo rivermouth to Fair Avenue until Saturday morning.
The closure — and reports of the attack, which did not cause any injury — has shocked the surf community.
The order, which shut down water activities in Main Beach, Cowell Beach, Steamer Lane, Its Beach and others, was issued after a large shark bit a kayak a quarter mile off Steamer Lane about 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Santa Cruz Fire Department.
The kayak’s strong Kevlar hull was crunched in the attack, but the boater was not hurt, Fire Chief Jim Frawley said.
“We’re not closing the beach. We are closing water activity,” Frawley said. “We’re just going to appeal to them. ‘Help us out here. There’s plenty of other places people go paddle and kayak.’”
Those who violate the order could face citations, he said.
“We don’t want to do that,” Frawley said. “Marine safety staff and lifeguards will monitor the area in the meantime.”
The surf community was surprised by the order prohibiting water activities.
Karin Cotterman of San Francisco came to Cowell Beach for one reason: To go surfing. “This is a real bummer,” Cotterman said. “We coexist with (sharks).”
Local surfer and firefighter Noah Nagel said he was having to tell “a lot” of people not to enter the water.
The five surfers in the water, Nagel said, had been warned.
SNIP
Karin Cotterman of San Francisco came to Cowell Beach for one reason: To go surfing. “This is a real bummer,” Cotterman said. “We coexist with (sharks).”
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Stupid.
Like there will be a feeding frenzy....
Cue the music...
Until the sharks decide otherwise.
I'd go now because it is sunny but my app says 29.2044 mph gusting winds and I don't want to ride my bicycle a total of 3 hours and lay on the beach in that.
More crappy weather in days to come. So much for global warming.
Good thing we have a wave machine near us.
My daughter passed her swimming test yesterday and advanced to the next level. :)
What is up? No global warming, Russian, Republican antagonism, or S.U.V. referenced as a cause in a story with a victim? Wow the media was sleeping at the wheel on this one!
Great area, but the water is always cold...
Why not the Wansee?
Happens every summer in this area
Surfers taste like seal...
Thus no man-eating sharks. On a cloudy day I am practically the only one in the water. On a hot summer day it’s perfect. :)
Wannsee is the other side of Berlin.
Yup, have to wear a wet suit when surfing in the ocean on the California coast. I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB in 1975-76 and went surfing with a couple of guys in my unit to a beach at the south end Jalama Beach that's called Tarantulas by surfers in the area. The water is cold and the waves can get big there.
...and the tide can come in like a different kind of “frenzy”...
Isn’t a kayak safer than a surfboard? Musta made the shark amorous.
A kayak should be safer than a surfboard, but it’s in “the eyes of the beholder”.
Krunchy Kayaker....it’s whats for lunch
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