Have you ever almost drowned? (Like Jorge)

[Higgs]

As a kid in Aus we were obviously required to go to the local beaches unsupervised and under skilled. I mean don't get me wrong, we all did our mandatory annual swim assessments, but no way were the actual results getting passed down the chain of command. But no way did anyone but the most swim-concious parents pay attention. As far as all other "normal" parents were concerned, if they don't contact me its definitely no fail and forwards we go.

Meanwhile my cohort were drowning in droves.

Didn't stop us though. I have been caught in many the rip and at the back of a suddenly surprisingly large set of waves, but I have always managed to make it back to shore. If often just barely.

[spike]

As a kid in Aus we were obviously required to go to the local beaches unsupervised and under skilled. I mean don't get me wrong, we all did our mandatory annual swim assessments, but no way were the actual results getting passed down the chain of command. But no way did anyone but the most swim-concious parents pay attention. As far as all other "normal" parents were concerned, if they don't contact me its definitely no fail and forwards we go.

Meanwhile my cohort were drowning in droves.

Didn't stop us though. I have been caught in many the rip and at the back of a suddenly surprisingly large set of waves, but I have always managed to make it back to shore. If often just barely.

Back to the shallows where a deadly jellyfish can sting you, or the shore where a blue octopus hiding in the rocks takes you out. Nowhere is safe.

[Chris_H_2]

As a kid in Aus

not gonna lie - i read this as "as a kid in anus."

[Higgs]

Of all Australia's deadly critters it is the stone fish that I fear the most. Randomly walking in the shallows and feel a decent pin prick when you step. Welcome to hell.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/scie ... 643edfd9d3

“I describe the pain as excruciating because the word comes from crucify, and that’s exactly what it was — there’s was no other way to describe it.”

That’s what Keven Renshaw said after he was stung by the most venomous fish in the world, the stonefish, The Gladstone Observer reports.

Mr Renshaw, originally from Ireland, and his partner Grace Scantlebury, from Rockhampton, were supposed to be on a relaxing weekend away at Bargara, east of Bundaberg.

But, a day into the getaway, disaster struck as the couple enjoyed the clear ocean waters of Seventeen Seventy.

“I thought a fish had bit me at first and I pulled my foot away,” Mr Renshaw said.

“But from the moment you’re bitten you know you’re in trouble."

“It was like a blunt puncture trauma, like some had hit you right in the soft tissue.”

He was stung between his toes on his left foot as he walked in waist-high water along the beach.

“There were a few rocks on the beach but we never thought to watch out for stonefish,” he said.

The stonefish venom causes severe pain and swelling and can kill tissues, stop your arms and legs from functioning and put your body into shock.

In just 10 minutes, the 51-year-old said his pain went through the roof.

He said it felt like the webbing between his toes has been sliced.

“It went from a sharp painful thing to being excruciating,” he said.

“It was like hitting your toe with a hammer and then rubbing over it again and again with a nail file.

“I guess you have a lot of nerves down there.

“I’ve been through pain in the past where I’ve needed a screw in my skull and nothing compares to this.”

Mr Renshaw said he’d had a heart attack a few years ago and, as a nurse himself, he knew the venom wouldn’t be good for him, so sought immediate medical attention.

“The coughing started pretty quickly and I went downhill,” he said.

“I had three green whistles of painkillers and it didn’t do anything.

“The venom is not good for your heart, as it can set off an arrhythmia or fibrillation.”

He said the pain radiated from his foot where the barb remained.

“I was trying to man up and be a man about it,” Mr Renshaw said.

“But you can see from the pictures, I couldn’t handle it.”

Five hours after he was stung Mr Renshaw was at Bundaberg Hospital where they eased the pain with anaesthetic. The following day he had surgery to remove the barb.

___

No fucking thanks.

[spike]

You’d rather die?

[E.H. Ruddock]

3 of my friend drowned when we were in 6th grade. They were swimming in a local swimming hole after a rain and got swept away.

[96583UP]

so sad

and yes people don't realize how dangerous surfing is

a couple folks died around here last year

[96583UP]

i've been caught in undertow before and my back seized up once attempting surfing

never been taken out in a rip thank god but guess it seems inevitable

i am a regular life vest wearer on boats however

really we should just all be wearing at least a light duty vest out there when swimming

why use your muscles like a sucker

enjoy the luxury of the mechanical advantage

[tragabigzanda]

There is a wolf in me . . . fangs pointed for tearing gashes . . . a red tongue for raw meat . . . and the hot lapping of blood—I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fox in me . . . a silver-gray fox . . . I sniff and guess . . . I pick things out of the wind and air . . . I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers . . . I circle and loop and double-cross.

There is a hog in me . . . a snout and a belly . . . a machinery for eating and grunting . . . a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun—I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fish in me . . . I know I came from salt-blue water-gates . . . I scurried with shoals of herring . . . I blew waterspouts with porpoises . . . before land was . . . before the water went down . . . before Noah . . . before the first chapter of Genesis.

There is a baboon in me . . . clambering-clawed . . . dog-faced . . . yawping a galoot's hunger . . . hairy under the armpits . . . here are the hawk-eyed hankering men . . . here are the blonde and blue-eyed women . . . here they hide curled asleep waiting . . . ready to snarl and kill . . . ready to sing and give milk . . . waiting—I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so.

There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird . . . and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want . . . and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes—And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness.

O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart—and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where—For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.

[epilogue]

I haven't.

yes

[epilogue]

Yes. Got turned upside down in my kayak and couldnt roll back up and couldnt get the skirt off for a bit. Quite terrifying really. Finally was able to get one more heave ho and tear the skirt, grabbed the boat and swam to shore and hiked the rest of the way out with it over my shoulder along the train tracks.

Oh, and on the hike out a train came. So, had to ditch the boat and go down the bank to miss the train.

Not a good night for strat.

Still good to see you posting again

[wease]

Yes.

My cousin and I were probably 7-8 years old. We were at the local pool and swimming in the shallow (5 ft at deepest) end and he somehow dragged us under the boundary rope to the deep (don’t remember, but a helluva lot deeper than 5ft. Probably at least 15ft because it had both regular and high dive boards) end. We could both swim ok but something got us both in a panic and both took turns shoving the other’s head under water while gasping for air. Imagine two pistons side-by-side working in an engine. The lifeguard jumped in and saved us.

[Strat]

Yes. Got turned upside down in my kayak and couldnt roll back up and couldnt get the skirt off for a bit. Quite terrifying really. Finally was able to get one more heave ho and tear the skirt, grabbed the boat and swam to shore and hiked the rest of the way out with it over my shoulder along the train tracks.

Oh, and on the hike out a train came. So, had to ditch the boat and go down the bank to miss the train.

Not a good night for strat.

Still good to see you posting again

[spike]

Yes.

My cousin and I were probably 7-8 years old. We were at the local pool and swimming in the shallow (5 ft at deepest) end and he somehow dragged us under the boundary rope to the deep (don’t remember, but a helluva lot deeper than 5ft. Probably at least 15ft because it had both regular and high dive boards) end. We could both swim ok but something got us both in a panic and both took turns shoving the other’s head under water while gasping for air. Imagine two pistons side-by-side working in an engine. The lifeguard jumped in and saved us.

Did he slap your backsides for being idiots?

[wease]

Yes.

My cousin and I were probably 7-8 years old. We were at the local pool and swimming in the shallow (5 ft at deepest) end and he somehow dragged us under the boundary rope to the deep (don’t remember, but a helluva lot deeper than 5ft. Probably at least 15ft because it had both regular and high dive boards) end. We could both swim ok but something got us both in a panic and both took turns shoving the other’s head under water while gasping for air. Imagine two pistons side-by-side working in an engine. The lifeguard jumped in and saved us.

Did he slap your backsides for being idiots?

She did say something to us. She was fairly nice about it tho. She on-and-off dated our older cousin so she knew us. A few years down the line he knocked her up and they got married. Then a couple more years after that they divorced.

[96583UP]

was she hot

[Higgs]

[wease]

was she hot

She very much used to be. Haven’t seen her in quite some time.

[96583UP]

was she hot

She very much used to be. Haven’t seen her in quite some time.

you should show up at her house at 2am with a bottle of jack daniels and see if she wants to catch up

[spike]

was she hot

She very much used to be. Haven’t seen her in quite some time.

you should show up at her house at 2am with a bottle of jack daniels and see if she wants to catch up

He’d definitely catch something.