.... "Oh shit" moments.

C'mon, we all have em - give us your best.

Mine was today, out on Monsters reef, an evil slab about 1 mile off the headland. If you look for SW england, we have a 15 to 20 foot swell at 16 seconds (27mph) and very light offshore.
I did the ring-around but all were busy and all that - so off I went on my own. In the sea at 7.30 am, the river was about double head high and reeling rights - just epic. But I couldn't keep my eye off Monsters reef, far off in the distance - so big it looked slow motion.

So... naturally.... being me - off I go.

When there it looked like Shippies, the mutant Oz slab. Thick warping barrels, no crew to pull you out. So I thought if I take off on the shoulder and just snag a few - I will be fine. As the hour passes I got deeper and deeper. Crazy full on heart on your mouth stuff.
Then one set came through. A BIG set, and I mean BIG. As with slabs - the bigger are oddly safer, but this wasnt hitting the right I was about to drop after just paddling and it looked like it was going to section on me. I bury a rail before making the drop to kick out over the back. But it had already started pitching. This had to be 25 foot, and I am not going to make it. Momentum stops, and I start to accelerate backwards.

I cant believe I am going to go over the falls, upside down - here of all places and on a slab reef!

...."OH SHIT - THIS IS GOING TO BE BAD"

It seemed to take ages, like I was falling for ever, I slam into the water and the explosion from the wave hammering me was like nothing in my near 30 years of surfing. The violence and power, at one point my face slams rock. I have a broken tooth now - I'm not sure if from the bomb or me gritting my teeth, holding on to my paddle for dear life.

Eventually all goes calm, I roll. I honestly cant believe I have made it - that the quad held. I have a 2 inch gash on my face and I am emotionally and physically exhausted.
But - I got away with it. Imagine how bad it could have been??

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Live life like your gonna die - cos you are!

Had a few in my day but that was sick. I believe you broke rule #1, you don't go that far offshore alone.

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Canoli's, the new powerbar!!

At my age and with my experience should (and did) know better. Thing is - the better you surf, the more you have the desire to be challenged. And at some point your 'this is stupid' compass does not register. Waves like that to me are gravity, I have no choice, I am pulled to it. And even though every cell in my body is telling me 'Dont do it - this is nuts' I find myself paddling out to it, for 'Just one'.

But, as the saying goes - if you wanna dance, you gotta pay the band. Today I paid. Swells dropped a bit, but you can bet, first light tomorrow I will be back out there with a smaller ski for the crazy drop.
If your gonna be dumb - you'd better be tough.

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Live life like your gonna die - cos you are!

I popped back to get some pics, but the wind had got on it. But on this wave you can see that little section!!!

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Live life like your gonna die - cos you are!

here's what I can offer instead.
My ballsiest moment came in May of 97 as I went on my first bowhunt for bear. Instead of starting with a much easier and far safer black bear hunt, I went straight for the ultimate challenge and danger, mountain grizzly in Alaska.
On day 7, I finally got my chance as I stalked to within 35 yards of the blonde beast. We were both on a cliff of a mountain and I was out on a narrow ledge with a very gusty wind hitting me from the left side, making my balance and archery shot almost impossible. I could fall to my death 100 feet down, or if the bear sees me or I wound him, he'd definitely devour me in a split second. As I drew my bow, a big gust of wind hit me as I stood there about to fall over at full draw with my aim all over the bear's body saying to myself, "what the hell have I gotten myself into now? It's do or die for sure this time."
The gusty wind backed off for a few seconds, I zero-ed in on his chest and let her fly. I immediately squatted down to get my balance and crawled to a safer spot as I watched him go around in big circles down the cliff chasing that arrow in his chest and letting out a huge roar that made my knees quiver. I could tell he didn't know what happened and wasn't in pain, but when he saw that arrow, he went beserk, a mucho pissed off grizzly who wanted someone's ass, mine if he'd seen me...
I don't think my experience quite compares to yours, but that's the best "Oh Shit"moment I've got for now.
My story was published in the 1998 Big Game issue of Bowhunter Magazine. Here's a photo of me and the griz, hence my nickname - "biggriz".
FYI, this is not the biggest specie of bear, the coastal brown bear is the one that gets over 9', this dude was about 8' and over 500#. His skull size was the world's biggest for that year for archery mountain grizzly.

http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj206/grandlakecircle/?action=view&current=grizzlyphoto.jpg

It all started on a Saturday evening, my girlfriends younger sister was staying for the weekend and my girlf friend was sposed to be out of town for the evening and ... Shocked

ohh, ok..

A surf story.. I got one I will type up as soon as I get more than a few minutes sometime soon..

I've had my nearly killed myself surfing experience I will share Embarassed

no Ice?

	asspaddler wrote:
	It all started on a Saturday evening, my girlfriends younger sister was staying for the weekend and my girlf friend was sposed to be out of town for the evening and ...

and her father came to pick her up...knocked on the door and nobody answered. But being 6' 4" and an Army Ranger and Navy Seal and expert in Self Defense with the senses of a cat, eagle and hearing of a dolphin. He hears some dull moaning around the back and goes to investigate.............

2006 Memorial Day weekend and it was my 1st paddle of the season. The sets where 6-8 with a 6-7 second period. The sweep was was a heavy west and I could not get over the outside sandbar, I was on a sot and getting knocked off over and over. I was about 1/4 mile off the beach and got hammered and lost the SOT and as I was swimming to the beach I got caught in a rip and off I went. I spent almost 1 hour trying to paddle out and now I was outside and swimming. I could not get back through, the water was chilly but I did have a 3-2 on. I look at my watch when I got knocked off and it was almost 4:00pm. I was out of shape and tired and getting hammered every time I was trying to swim in. After many trys I crawled onto the beach and it was almost 5:00pm.

As I finally got up what do I see, my SOT with my new werner paddle still on the leash. I had to drag that thing over 1 mile back to the car.

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Canoli's, the new powerbar!!

Happened to me like that about 10 years ago, but I was in good shape and still almost didn't make it. Luckily, a board surfer went out for a sundown session and paddled over to me and let me rest on his stick for a minute. That was all I needed to get a fresh start and finally get in.
Made me have a lot of respect for rip currents next to jettys and piers.
Glad you made it through that one!

This is a fun topic. Winter is a great time for talking story.

And mine : Back in '72 I went out for an eary spring surf , alone. ( Yeah , I know.) Waves about shoulder high , air 40 degrees , water low thirties, wind sideshore 20-25 ; shortly after ice out. There were no cold water surf designed wetsuits back then ; I was outfitted in a dive suit that was not at all flush resistant. Head protection consisted of of an ill fitting dive hood , also non flush resistant. To round out the safety equipment , this was pre-leash. I was in the lee of a jetty , about 350 yards out , riding my trusty 6'6" x 24" downrailed "Watermelon". After catching a backside right I began a series of climbing and dropping turns to gain speed on the rather long wall , but on the third or fourth release off the top I caught a rail and did a header down to the bottom , resulting in a full flush and separation from my board. After glancing outside I reasoned that I could get to the board using a head saving side stroke before the next set bore down. I was wrong - I didn't make it ; the whitewater took the board just as I laid a gloved hand on the rail , flushing me again and rolling the board a short distance. I then knew that I had two options: Swim conservatively all the way in , getting rolled and flushed by each wave , or go for broke by doing a full race crawl face down in the ice water and try to recover the board. I knew that the crawl sprint would wipe me out , but I so feared the swim in that I took the gamble. After a face down full speed sprint , I raised my throbbing head just in time to see the wind get under the board , pick it up like a leaf , and deposit it 25 yards down wind. Now I was genuinly scared. For the next 15 minutes , which seemed an eternity , I forced myself to remain calm and did a slow back stroke , taking a deep breath and going under with each wave. I was getting too hypothermic to actually swim in ; I knew that I had to let the waves wash me in. Part of my brain was saying I wasn't going to make it ; I could feel panic in my guts and I had to fight that off. When my feet finally felt the inside sanbar I found that I was too cold and exhausted to stand ; I had to crawl up onto the beach.

There was no one around to see me crawl out of the surf. Once I recovered I thought about the perfect recipe for disaster I had cooked up for myself. I got lucky.

I'll give you a 10 just for going out.....at those temps God made water to turn to snow so we can ski....I mean snow ski. I wouldn't even think of doing what you did now with the best wetsuit made, even in a drysuit. Can't you go ice fishing or ice sailing(that looks fun) para skiing , wind skiing on ice or even tobogganing? I don't think my limbs would bend in water and air and wind of those temps and intensity......btw did they shrink or just disappear?................r

This happened about 8 years ago.

I took a small underwater camera in a housing (Canon A20 if anyone cares) and put it on a leash around my neck. Then I put a Second Skin (lycra anti-chaff vest) over the wetsuit and camera to make sure it did not bonk me on the head (yeah, I was thinking !!!)

Of course, I was surfing Outer Kom (this is the inside: http://www.wannasurf.com/spot/Africa/South_Africa/Cape_Town/outer_kom/photo/20080218192600-surf-spot-photo-Outer_Kom-IMGP1053.JPG ... the "outer' can handle 6meter+ swells) at about... 3 board lengths wave face, so not particularly huge.

Took a late takeoff, free fall about 2 board lengths, landed. At this point, the camera bounced off my lap, stretched the lycra enough so that the camera hit my chin.

My teeth cut half way through my tongue (stitches to tongue = 2nd worse place I can think of for a guy) and I shattered a wisdom tooth. Yes, I have no clue why the shock wave shattered only the last tooth.

Icy water woke me up real fast. Rolled up and spat out tooth fragments and blood. Continued surfing another 30 minutes till the tide turned (it was a good session, and salt water stopped the bleeding fast!). Drove 1 hour to get home. Showed gf. Got her to take pictures, then she took me to the emergency room. Was pretty difficult to talk by that time due to the swelling. Interestingly enough, the tongue heals REALLY fast due to all the blood flow.

btw did they shrink or just disappear?................r

Disappeared. Completely. As though they were never there.

Ok, after a few decades in the water have had a couple of crawling up the beach puking, and seeing spots experiences. Remember, this was before the days of leashes. One involved a torn acl from a hard off the lip that landed badly, the other just out in conditions I had no business being in. But the best one didn't even involve macking conditions- just general head high outside the rolled through to reform into a screaming, hollow, closeout in the shallows. Super fun w/ a moderate thrashing payback. This was 10-12 years ago and I'm on my 6'2" thruster. So I follow the outside into the reform, and it sets up as usual- so I drop in for a fun little run expecting the usual thrash except this time somehow the rail of the board cracked me right behind my left ear. Came to underwater- hearing had gone from stereo to mono. OK, ruptured eardrum, will set up appt. w/ doc next day, but as I ducked under the next set heading in, all hell broke loose. My vision went crazy and my head felt like it exploded in pain. The ER revealed a basal skull fracture with spinal fluid flowing through that ruptured eardrum and down my neck. Thankfully no surgery was required- the egg was cracked just not out of place. the only remaining symptom is an inability to clear below about 25-30 feet when diving. Just goes to show the little ones can trash you ,too! Very Happy