Australian surfer Alex Hayes seemed like the ultimate nonchalant teen when he shared a selfie on Instagram, apparently showing a pretty large shark only metres away from his surfboard.
"So... I went for a paddle out front, decided to stop have a rest and then saw this bad boy," he wrote on his Instagram account on Friday, which has more than 64K followers.
The photo quickly went viral -- too bad it's a fake.
Hayes, 17, confirmed to Mashable Australia the image was put together on Photoshop, and said he thought it would be "obvious" it wasn't real.
"I would be happy to have a cruisey, chiller of a shark as a buddy," he wrote in an email. "And because that is unlikely, I simply made one with the add of some humour!"
A photo posted by Alex Hayes (@alexhayess) on May 24, 2015 at 1:15am PDT
The surfer, who lives on Sydney's northern beaches, photoshopped the image with a friend -- videographer and photographer, Alex Gray.
Although he didn't expect the photo to become such a global phenomenon, Hayes said he found it hilarious when the image was picked up by news outlets all over the world. "People believe everything on the internet," he wrote. "But it was a harmless joke. And everyone got entertainment from it so I'm happy! No harm done!"
I love unexpected photos #winterishere A photo posted by Alex Hayes (@alexhayess) on Apr 19, 2015 at 2:41am PDT
Although it wasn't for real this time, he said he does occasionally see sharks when he's in the water daily. And he's a big fan of the ocean predator.
"It's pretty awful the way that sharks seem to be portrayed as these mindless killing machines," Hayes added. "When clearly it's their ocean and we intrude where they live so we have to take that risk knowing the consequence and just enjoy the ocean for what it is and respect the sea and its creatures!"
It just goes to show, you can never trust a savvy teen with Photoshop skills and a good social message.