This past weekend I surfed Salmon Creek with my brother Fred. I’ve previously surfed it on my own when I had a listing out in Guerneville, and with my friends Fremont and Nick. It’s a pretty fun beach break, relatively user friendly with a welcoming crowd. As an added bonus this time of year the wind patterns up there are milder than down in Marin and San Francisco, where the waves are often tattered by strong winds and un-surfable. There’s just one issue, the ‘other’ locals.
Surfing the internet I discovered that Salmon Creek has is the third most likely beach to have a shark attack in California, right behind the infamous and deadly Surf Beach and Samoa Dunes (https://www.californiabeaches.com/shark-attack-locations-in-california-2000-present/). Surf Beach at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California is particular notorious, and seems to be featured in the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week every summer. Their most recent installment was trying to figure out if it was one ‘serial killer’ shark that returned to attack a surfer every two years over a six year period, or if there were different sharks involved.
More internet surfing on the subject of ‘Salmon Creek Shark Attacks’ revealed a string of attacks and encounters. In 2019 a 16 footer approached a woman and got tangled in her leash (https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-coast-surfer-describes-scary-encounter-with-great-white-shark/). She miraculously escaped injury. That wasn’t an isolated incident either, in 2004 a man from Windsor had a frightening encounter with a great white that bumped him off his board. It circled the surfer and when it approached him again, he shoved the tip of the board into the shark’s head to keep him at bay. The shark wildly thrashed about him, but didn’t end up biting the resourceful surfer who thought he was going to die.
I got lost in my research, falling into an internet black hole as one is prone to doing. The thing that stood out is that sightings are fairly routine in the area for fishermen and people watching from the cliffs. Getting ‘bumped’ by a shark does not seem unusual. It’s not surprising that when I’ve been there other surfers in the water have been happy to see me. We like to say the odds are better with more surfers in the water.
Current research indicates a population of about 300 great whites living in the Red Triangle, which stretches from Bodega Bay which is right next to Salmon Creek, out to the Farallon Islands and down to Monterey Bay (or Big Sur, depending on which article or YouTube video you are watching (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxLPF5pDORI). That’s actually pretty comforting to me, because that’s a lot of miles of ocean to cover for just 300 sharks. Then again, it’s concerning how often people see and encounter the sharks at Salmon Creek.
The thing of it is, humans aren’t on the shark’s menu. When they hit us it’s either a mistake or they are just being curious. The odds of being attacked by a shark are very low, I have much better chances of winning the lottery. I think surfing on the weekend is the best bet at Salmon Creek. #1 there are more surfers in the water on weekends. #2 in case there is an attack or other emergency there is usually a lifeguard patrolling the beach. I like the idea of help being near, just in case.
One factor in my favor is that I surf the beach so infrequently my odds of an encounter are much better than someone who surfs there regularly. I’m thinking about surfing at Salmon Creek again this coming weekend. Ultimately sharks are everywhere along the California coast and I’m in more danger driving to the beach than I am getting in the water.