That Time I Almost Died

[Superhero 8884]

My parents lived in the Bahamas while I was at UT. Every summer I would go visit them and stay for a few weeks or months.

A few friends from high school visited, and we would snorkel everyday. We visited a resort beach and swam towards the breakwater. Apparently we thought it would be fun to swim between the big concrete blocks* that formed the breakwater. We quickly found a hole and decided to swim through it. I got about half way when I kicked up and my fin got stuck on the block This was the type of cheap fins that had an adjustable back strap, and was pretty damn hard to kick off. After about 30 seconds, my friends dove down to find me, and helped me get the fin off, but it was was a pretty long 50 seconds underwater.

 

* More like 3' diameter cylinders about 5'-6' long dumped into the ocean.

[PhillyD 1260]

2 hours ago, Superhero said:

My parents lived in the Bahamas while I was at UT. Every summer I would go visit them and stay for a few weeks or months.

A few friends from high school visited, and we would snorkel everyday. We visited a resort beach and swam towards the breakwater. Apparently we thought it would be fun to swim between the big concrete blocks* that formed the breakwater. We quickly found a hole and decided to swim through it. I got about half way when I kicked up and my fin got stuck on the block This was the type of cheap fins that had an adjustable back strap, and was pretty damn hard to kick off. After about 30 seconds, my friends dove down to find me, and helped me get the fin off, but it was was a pretty long 50 seconds underwater.

 

* More like 3' diameter cylinders about 5'-6' long dumped into the ocean.

I can't imagine what was running through your mind in those 50 seconds.

[Fudge Nuggets 19252]

On 9/26/2018 at 1:46 AM, tx 3 putt said:

coming in from an offshore hitch and the helicopter decides to die out. pilot is hitting 'start' button like mad and calling in our soon to be 'touchdown' in the gulf. tells us to get ready for a hard landing and waiting before getting out, don't get caught up in the helo blade.

helicopter started up again and we made it to the heliport 

Guy I worked with was in a ditching.  He said after they landed on the water, the pilot turns around and tells everyone to remain seated for the time being because the chopper is supposed to float.  According to the guy I know, another passenger said, "Fuck that, it's also supposed to fly."

Edited September 30, 2018 by Fudge Nuggets

[Superhero 8884]

On 9/26/2018 at 11:16 PM, PhillyD said:

I can't imagine what was running through your mind in those 50 seconds.

Oh shit oh fuck oh shit oh fuck, etc.

[pacman 7385]

Walking along a brick damn in the winter. Misstep, lose balance, fall through ice layer and into water, instantly black out

 

Fortunately my cousin was right there and pulled me out quickly. I walked that way by myself all the time but not that day.

[pacman 7385]

On 9/27/2018 at 1:16 AM, PhillyD said:

I can't imagine what was running through your mind in those 50 seconds.

I should have fucked that girl in HIS302!

[Llano Estacado 1257]

Guy I worked with was in a ditching.  He said after they landed on the water, the pilot turns around and tells everyone to remain seated for the time being because the chopper is supposed to float.  According to the guy I know, another passenger said, "Fuck that, it's also supposed to fly."

 

Twin-turbine autorotating IFR, the only way to fly.

 

*this may have been posted from the HLO using client’s guest WiFi*

[Mileslong 4742]

I will give the OP a pos rep for the mention of a Honda 70. Those were big players in my youth.

Here is the closest I came to dying. Was sitting behind Mark McGuire in a flight back to Orange County. While he was standing talking to his wife and I decided to secretly snap some pics of him. I was looking out the window while casually holding my phone and blindly snapping pics so he wouldn’t see me.

It wasn’t until later when I looked at the pics that i realized how close to death I had come. The stare alone took several years off...

[JimmyHoffa 1188]

Fell asleep while driving home from a friend's house on a two lane highway, woke up when I hit the gravel on the other side of the road's shoulder, was able to get it under control and back on my side of the road. Luckily it was late at night so there wasn't traffic coming in the other direction. 

[RPM 26408]

1 hour ago, Mileslong said:

I will give the OP a pos rep for the mention of a Honda 70. Those were big players in my youth.

Those things were indestructible. Not sure where that bike wound up. Lost track of it when I went in the CG. But if you put oil and gas in it today, it would start.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

2 hours ago, JimmyHoffa said:

Fell asleep while driving home from a friend's house on a two lane highway, woke up when I hit the gravel on the other side of the road's shoulder, was able to get it under control and back on my side of the road. Luckily it was late at night so there wasn't traffic coming in the other direction. 

Done that a couple times. Coming back from a long day ski trip, and the other time was coming back on 95 south, after seeing the Stones in DC back in 81.

[luke duke 6420]

[Cody2422 279]

I beat some dudes ass on riverside one night and he stabbed me in the chest later that night when we were going back to the apartments. Little bitch. About an inch lower he might have really done some damage but my chest plate took most of the blow. Michael McKinley. That was his name. He never paid the full restitution awarded by the judge. Wonder how much that would be with interest now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tyler Durden 132]

Phil needs to add “have you stabbed anyone” to his mortgage application. Seems reasonable they would be more likely to not repay a financial obligation.

[chesthair 231]

many:

 

-Worked at a haunted house in high school in garland, lived in duncanville.  Driving home early in the morning down I30, not many cars on the road.  I was in the left lane and someone driving east flashed their lights at me and i assumed it was a cop so i pulled over into the middle lane.  An 18 wheeler passed me right as we were coming over a bridge near fair park.  On the other side of the bridge there was a van in the left lane, stopped, with no lights on.  The 18 wheeler hit it head on.  If that person didnt flash their lights at me i would have hit it head on at 70 mph.  I guess i would have been dead.

-Still in high school, had a girlfriend in ft worth.  Driving home later from her house fell asleep on I20, woke up going across a pasture.  Went back and looked the next day and that was the only place on that stretch of road that didnt have a culvert.  Lucky.

-Still in high school.  Was spending the night at a friends house and around 1 am decided we would play golf the next day.  Drove home to get my clubs and "snuck" into the house through the backdoor.  We were being quite to not wake my parents.  Walking down the hallway to my bedroom and passed my parents room.  Heard a "click" and turned to see my dad 2 feet away holding a gun.  He thought we were robbers and actually pulled the trigger but didnt have a round in the chamber.  

 

[El Diablo 4232]

Bet that put some hair on your chest.

[Zepol87 9210]

Lived in Monterrey, Mx for a few years. It was pretty bad during my time there with the killings and shit. Having dinner at a seafood bar/restaurant and hear shooting. Guy 5 chairs away from me at the bar got shot twice in the chest. Guess it counts cause they could have missed or said fuck shooting and threw a grenade or a bomb inside. 

[lateshow 1308]

1 hour ago, Zepol87 said:

Lived in Monterrey, Mx for a few years. It was pretty bad during my time there with the killings and shit. Having dinner at a seafood bar/restaurant and hear shooting. Guy 5 chairs away from me at the bar got shot twice in the chest. Guess it counts cause they could have missed or said fuck shooting and threw a grenade or a bomb inside. 

[kibbles 70]

19 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

Righteous yard sale amigo!

fucking sucked at the time

[Ten Bears 2484]

When I was 13 my scrawny ass got kicked square in the chest by my first horse, a gelding I was breaking.  He and I were calmly standing there, just brushing the fucker's tail but unknown to me some hair had caught in the curry comb and I jerked a couple of tail hairs out on the upstroke.  I don't remember getting kicked but I do remember seeing him bucking forward, his ass all hunched up, fixin' to kick and then I definitely remember the sound it made when he connected to my breastplate.  I came to for a couple of seconds up on my hands and knees about 10 feet away, and thought, "Well, I'm not dead."   Then darkness warshed over the Dude.   

Luckily, my dad heard the commotion and came running over.  He said he my eyes were rolled back in my head and he couldn't get a pulse for what seemed forever but probably was 2 minutes max.  Probably closer to 1 but he thought I was a goner.  I finally started gasping and he got a pulse and here I am today.  I had a 1 inch welp the shape of a horseshoe square on my bony sternum and was sore all summer. 

All in all, better than getting kicked in face I guess.

 

 

[RPM 26408]

2 hours ago, Ten Bears said:

All in all, better than getting kicked in face I guess.

That never turns out well.

2 hours ago, Ten Bears said:

Then darkness warshed over the Dude.   

Like + rep, man.

 

 

[HOOK'EMHOOAH 1610]

On 9/22/2018 at 10:26 AM, Jkwellborn said:

I’ve talked to a quite a few guys that have been in combat that say that

It's the goddamn truth.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

12 hours ago, Ten Bears said:

When I was 13 my scrawny ass got kicked square in the chest by my first horse, a gelding I was breaking.  He and I were calmly standing there, just brushing the fucker's tail but unknown to me some hair had caught in the curry comb and I jerked a couple of tail hairs out on the upstroke.  I don't remember getting kicked but I do remember seeing him bucking forward, his ass all hunched up, fixin' to kick and then I definitely remember the sound it made when he connected to my breastplate.  I came to for a couple of seconds up on my hands and knees about 10 feet away, and thought, "Well, I'm not dead."   Then darkness warshed over the Dude.   

Luckily, my dad heard the commotion and came running over.  He said he my eyes were rolled back in my head and he couldn't get a pulse for what seemed forever but probably was 2 minutes max.  Probably closer to 1 but he thought I was a goner.  I finally started gasping and he got a pulse and here I am today.  I had a 1 inch welp the shape of a horseshoe square on my bony sternum and was sore all summer. 

All in all, better than getting kicked in face I guess.

 

 

That hoof outline seems like it was a good place for a tattoo, quite the ice breaker at the beach...

[Ten Bears 2484]

That story got me to thinking about another time that summer I nearly died. 

 My dad's best friend was this great character out of a bunch of crazies my dad ran around with.  He had been in a plane crash and had half his face burned off along with a few fingers ect.  Regardless he married a smoking hot girl and proceeded to get his pilot's license and became a crop duster.  He was the first person to let me drive by myself (with him in the passenger seat, 8 years old lol) and he gave me my first motorcycle ride.  At 10 he took me up for my first airplane ride and even let me hold the yoke (no pedo) for a minute.  We took off from a field across from the local beer joint.  He was my hero.

A month after the horse incident, he took me for my first helicopter ride in this tiny bubble canopy bird.  The next morning he and my dad took off in the helicopter to go hunting coyotes.  Not an hour of flight time since he had dropped me off they lost the tail rotor and went down on a huge ranch east of San Angelo.  The last thing he said was "Been nice knowing you, Pat!"  My dad said he came to after they crashed into a pecan tree on the pilot's side.  He smelled gas dripping on his head from the fuel tank overhead and decided he better crawl from the wreckage.  Just as he flopped out of the canopy the whole thing went up in flames along with my dad who stopped, dropped and rolled the flames out.  The crash site just happened to be near the Kickapoo Creek and pops washed himself off and took inventory.  He realized the top of his head was charred along with his hand that he had put up to see what was dripping on him.  He walked downstream and happened upon a tractor that started even and he rode it until he came to a new fence line and followed it until he came up on the owner of the ranch running a fence crew.  The rancher was nice enough to drive him to the hospital.  My old man's head swole up as big and as round as a basketball in the week after while he just sat in his chair, soundless.  He had 3rd degree burns and subsequent skin grafts on his head and hand along with a concussion and broken collarbone from the seat belt.  The only thing that saved him from worse injury or death was that he was wearing a goose down coat and vest that did most of the burning.  The crash site pictures showed alternating piles of feathers and melted plastic where he rolled on the ground extinguishing the flames.

I still miss John, the pilot and I like to fantasize that he put the helicopter down on his side to protect my dad.

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Ten Bears

[BlueGreySky 1032]

On 10/2/2018 at 1:55 PM, chesthair said:

many:

 

-Worked at a haunted house in high school in garland, lived in duncanville.  Driving home early in the morning down I30, not many cars on the road.  I was in the left lane and someone driving east flashed their lights at me and i assumed it was a cop so i pulled over into the middle lane.  An 18 wheeler passed me right as we were coming over a bridge near fair park.  On the other side of the bridge there was a van in the left lane, stopped, with no lights on.  The 18 wheeler hit it head on.  If that person didnt flash their lights at me i would have hit it head on at 70 mph.  I guess i would have been dead.

-Still in high school, had a girlfriend in ft worth.  Driving home later from her house fell asleep on I20, woke up going across a pasture.  Went back and looked the next day and that was the only place on that stretch of road that didnt have a culvert.  Lucky.

-Still in high school.  Was spending the night at a friends house and around 1 am decided we would play golf the next day.  Drove home to get my clubs and "snuck" into the house through the backdoor.  We were being quite to not wake my parents.  Walking down the hallway to my bedroom and passed my parents room.  Heard a "click" and turned to see my dad 2 feet away holding a gun.  He thought we were robbers and actually pulled the trigger but didnt have a round in the chamber.  

 

Jesus Christ, dude, how have I never heard any of these stories before? 

[RockyMountainHighHorn 896]

I spent a few months in Green Bay, no not the city, when the cowboys lost on thanksgiving... I'm glad I'm alive.