“Shark Warning” signs recently posted at beaches in Santa Cruz and Capitola are fake, according to California state park rangers. Officials are not sure who has been posting the fake warning signs, but evidence has led them to believe that .
The notices listed several recent great white shark attacks and recommended that surfers stay away from the beach for at least 48 hours. But at the bottom of the fake notice was a clue. “Surf Cowells instead,” it read. Cowells, on Santa Cruz’s west side, and Pleasure point, where the warnings were posted, have a longtime rivalry. Officials suspect that the warnings were an attempt to drive more traffic to a rival beach.
Unfortunately for the Pleasure Point Gang, surfers largely ignored the warnings, and entered the water gleefully Thursday morning. Officials later removed the signs. The world now waits with bated breath for payback from the Cowells Beach Brigade.