Whats the closest you have come to death?

[inishowen]

In '00 I rented a beach house on the North Shore of Oahu. The North Shore is where the serious surfers go to catch those rolling pipeline waves. Being from the east coast I've hardly ever seen surf of any kind so it was a cool experience to see these surfers in action. The waves were coming in two sets with kind of a river in between them. Many surfers were riding the waves to the right of the river, no one was riding the waves to the left. I figured I'd get a close up view of the surfing and took a boogie board out to where the surfers were waiting for their next wave. When I got there they started calling me a stupid haole (white guy) and to get in before I get killed. After seeing the size of the waves I agreed and started heading back in, saw that no one was on the waves to the left so decided to do a little boogie boarding on the way in. The first wave I got had to be about 15 feet high and about a hundred yards wide. It took me to the crest and pitched me into the hole and then crashed on me. I was in a washing machine, under water for about 30 seconds. When I came up another wave crashed on me and the same washing machine effect happened again. The rip of each wave took me out a little further from the shore. This went on for about 15 waves. I got so tired that the only thing I could think to do was right before a wave hit I'd go under water, leave the board on top of the water and hold onto the wrist strap as hard as possible hoping that the wave would pull the board and me into shore. After another 15 waves I finally got spit onto the sand.

[vulturesrow]

I stood really close to the coffin at a funeral once. Closest to death Ive ever been.

[PokerFink]

This isn't even remotely a near death experience, but it was scary for a few moments. The first time I ever tried to do an eskimo roll (rolling in a kayak) I got very disoriented under the water and panicked. I lunged for the surface, but the kayak's skirt held me in (skirt is a plastic thing that keeps the water out of the kayak). In my panic, I forgot to just unhook the skirt, which is roughly as difficult as zipping up your fly. Another 2 lunges for the surface and the skirt came off and I got out safely, but I was very, very freaked for a few seconds.

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
The first wave I got had to be about 15 feet high and about a hundred yards wide. It took me to the crest and pitched me into the hole and then crashed on me. I was in a washing machine, under water for about 30 seconds. When I came up another wave crashed on me and the same washing machine effect happened again. The rip of each wave took me out a little further from the shore. This went on for about 15 waves. I got so tired that the only thing I could think to do was right before a wave hit I'd go under water, leave the board on top of the water and hold onto the wrist strap as hard as possible hoping that the wave would pull the board and me into shore. After another 15 waves I finally got spit onto the sand.

[/ QUOTE ]

From being around the ocean my whole life and hearing stories from people who are relatively inexperienced, this story is most likely horribly exagerrated.

That being said, the most important thing to do is not panic or you'll lose your breath underwater in an instant.

[Macdaddy Warsaw]

I was young, I'd guess about 6 or 7 and my dad had me on his shoulders in the ocean and let me go as a wave crashed into us. I got lifted off his shoulders and tumbled around for 15 or 20 seconds (a long time when you're 6). I still remember that and I don't remember much.

[Blarg]

I've had this experience many times, having lived years in Hawaii and body surfing all the time, but if you're surviving 15 or 30 real chaotic plunges, the waves are probably fairly small. However, for someone who doesn't know how to handle waves, even a small number of big ones dragging you under can be terrifying and dangerous.

The tricks are to dive into the base of the wave as it comes at you, and underneath it, because the turbulence is far less when you're deep under a wave. Timing can be tricky though sometimes. But you can often come out hardly stressed at all even from a real monster wave that way. The other tricks are to relax completely, and to curl yourself into a ball if you can -- having your body parts wrenched around or trying to fight sucks the air out of you. And finally, be quick about getting to the surface once the wave passes, or you might surface right into another wave and get a lungful of water instead of air.

[jba]

this is really messed up, and I am very sympathetic to how terrible this experience was for you.

am I messed up if it makes me want to do some whippits, like, right now?

[kurosh]

Not really that close to death, but interesting nonetheless. My ex-gf lived in another city, about an hour and a half away. One weekday night I was driving to go see her. It was pretty late, around 11PM. There weren't very many cars on the highway. All of a sudden, I hear and see a gigantic fireball go up in the distance. That couldn't have been good. I turn the radio on and wait for some news. In the meantime, I keep driving. After about 20 minutes, I notice there are a few helicopters flying around, some ambulences coming on the other side of the highway and very few people on my side. The radio starts saying stuff about how there have been reports of such and such chemical plant exploding. They're evacuating the nearby town because of the danger of a chemical fallout and shutting down the highway I am currently on. I shrug and figure they must have some kind of bypass where they shut down the highway so I keep going. Eventually, I hit the portion of the highway that they've shut down. The police direct me to the exit, and I take it. Apparently there was no detour and I had to turn around.

I have not seen my gf in a week. I am stubborn. I do not listen to reason. I am horny. I do a U-turn off the exit ramp and get right back on the highway behind the cops. I half-expect one of them to come chasing after me and arrest me, but I don't think anyone noticed.

I roll up my windows and turn off the thing that sucks air from outside. I don't want chemical fallout in my car. Occasionally another helicopters or ambulence will fly past me on the other side of the highway. There is no one on my side and for the most part, not a single car in sight.

I feel extremely safe.

After about another half an hour, I notice oncoming headlights. I think the road is curving or I'm tired. I keep driving. There is a car directly ahead of me, coming straight for me and we are both going at least 60MPH.

I no longer feel very safe.

I swerve to the right. The car swerves with me. I scream and swerve back. The car flies past me. I guess it was another idiot trying to get past the police blockade on the highway.

A little bit later, I make it to my gf's house and have lots of sex all night long.

[Shajen]

Had a deer run into my motorcycle at 65 mph.

I wasn't wearing a helmet at the time. 17 & stupid.

The deer hit between the front forks and the gas tank. The bike went sliding out from under me and I launched over the handle bars.

I don't remember doing this, but I know it saved my life. I tucked into a ball (fetal position) and rolled down the highway for about 200 yards. When I stopped rolling, I ended up standing. Roll, roll, roll, roll, untuck, stand. I don't know why or how I did it, but I did. I checked myself over, saw that nothing was in an akward position, I wasn't bleeding (that I could tell) and tried to get back on the bike. It was still running. Every time I tried to give it gas, it would die though. (It was stuck in 5th gear) The deer was laying next to the bike, with it's neck snapped. It was 11:30 or so at night, on a really empty NM road. Luckily for me, a car came by around midnight and took me back to my girlfriend's place...who I had just dropped off 10 minutes before I hit the deer. She wasn't wearing a helmet either. Stupid stupid.

Went to the hospital and had third degree burns (road rash, it was actually kinda cool looking, you could see the muscles on my right arm, but no skin) a fairly deep gash in my elbow requiring about 20 stitches, and a really frigging deep gash in my side. That one took about 30 internal stitches and a good 25 or so on the outside to close it up. I didn't have any broken bones, and only one little nick on my nose where my glasses had flown off. So lucky.

I also had a bunch of gravel underneath my skin on my knees and hands. That was really cool watching the ER doctor push the gravel back out the entrance holes. Nitrous Oxide is a wonderful drug.

I was super lucky. Someone was watching over me that night. I later found out when we went back to pick up the bike that rescue crews had searched for about an hour for a body. Fun stuff.