stillwater cove (fort ross)

Can any explain the apparent paradox?  the signs say it is one of the most dangerous beaches in California...yet the launch is a breeze and ab divers float around there like it's a lake?  Am I missing something?

The signs at all ocean beaches warn of undertows, rip currents, sleeper waves and all kinds of scary 'buzzwords' for dangerous ocean conditions.  This is just to keep tourists out of the water.

To be the most dangerous beach, more people have to die or get into trouble there. So, the beach has to be popular, also. To be popular the beach has to have easy access and calm waters. So more people go there and some of them get hurt. More get hurt there than at unsafe beaches where hardly anyone goes.

Without seeing any stats on the deaths at Stillwater Cove, I'd bet that kelp entanglement is a big killer.

It doesn't take much for people to get in trouble. especially here, due to the cold water.

I rescued a big fat guy at francis beach in HMB one year.  floated him in on my surfboard. His big fat brother tried to hug me,  

I've learned that a crowd of fat people running in circles on shore up to their ankles indicates somebody is in trouble. It would be comical if it weren't so sad.

This is a sure indicator in mexico.  I've seen a dead body @ el faro in michoacan; teenage boy on school trip from city. I've swum out 200 yards to get a girl on a boogie board in san juan de alima, michoacan. she got onto the boogie board in 1 foot of water. then a couple minutes later she can't touch the bottom, and can't swim... help!

I've seen people let their kids play at the edge of the water up here and it plain gives me the willies, fully creeps me out, I have to leave. cause I'm not going into the cold water here to save anybody. Can you imagine trying to find a 3 year old in the shorebreak? nightmare material.

Those signs are not for you...

The signs remind me of the beach hazard warning signs I saw on a trip to Kauai. My wife & I asked a girl at one of the info booths in Waimea about them and she said" oh yeah, don't swim here. We have big waves, big sharks, and these..." and she pointed to a color photo of a sea urchin apparently assuming we would not know what it was. As we drove to the beach we thought about how Cali has bigger sharks and colder water, as well as pretty good waves on occasion. I think signs like that are for folks from Nebraska or Kansas who may never have seen the ocean before.