What's the scariest thing you have ever done.

[Bill Douglas]

My heart goes out to you Paul. Sharks don't have that sly cunning out to get you thing. Ya just get out of the water and the situation is over.

[motion]

Originally Posted by Burnin' oil

The surfing stories remind me of trying to get out on a huge closed-out day at Hammonds in Santa Barbara. I got caught inside and got pounded - one giant roller after another. Pushed under and rolled around, panicking as I tried to swim through five feet of foam to get air, only to see another swell obscuring the horizon. Just thinking about it makes me sick. I was very close to drowning.

This happened to me about 6 years ago at Barking Sands beach in Kauai. I was trapped in a big set and couldn't get out. At one point I was completely out of strength and air, laying on the bottom, having given up fighting. My vision was going dark and I couldn't move, and just laid there thinking this was the end. Somehow managed to push my way up for the lull and dragged myself ashore. Now, I pretty much won't go into any surf.

[Burnin' oil]

Now I'm starting to have recall bad memories. We were boating and I was pulling the kids on a deck tube thingy. My girls, eight and ten or so, were riding and I whipped them around so the tube hit the wake and BAM - the tube caught air, sailed fifteen feet off the water and flung my girls off like a couple rag dolls. Stupid, stupid, stupid - still makes me feel sick. They were both banged up from hitting each other. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

That was very scary.

[RonDent]

I was diving at Monastery Beach in Monterey with a buddy of mine. Our plan was to drop down to 60 ft were the bottom was. The tide was going out and I missed the edge of the trench. At certain times of the year there can be a pretty bad down welling just off the face of the trench. I was kicking up like crazy and power inflating by BC but was dropping so fast I couldn't even clear my ears. Finally stopped when I managed to grab a rock at 140 ft. Looked down and saw nothing but darkness. Had to climb hand over hand to get back to the top of the ledge.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

I was driving an S-10 Blazer on the 101 North when a electrical panel box fell off the back of a CalTrans flatbed in front of me. These things are BIG. Like 3' x 3' x 5' and a couple hundred pounds. In a split second, it hit the front of my truck. Instantly, I went from 70MPH to 30MPH. Somehow, it flipped over the top of my Blazer and landed on the side of the freeway.

It took out the grille, bumper, headlights and radiator. I limped the car home. If that box had been just a few inches higher, it would have gone right through the windshield.

Of course, CalTrans denied any responsibility. The guy didnt even stop.

[carrera84]

I drove a 1978 CBX 1000 at full speed on the autobahn Stuttgart - München ....... and survived!

[flipper35]

Standing in the delivery room with my wife with her having already endured nearly 20 hours of labor and her bp is 195/145 while my mother in law (a teaching nurse from the same hospital) wringing her hands in near panic. I would have been less worried if I had not seen her face. Our second child was only 3.5 hours.

[924slover]

Surfing one of my favorite breaks in jersey and the surf wasn't huge but it was really off that day and there was no defined peak it was just storm surf breaking everywhere. Caught one and didnt make the drop and had a 3 wave hold down. I've had this happen before and never bothered me but this time it had me nervous that i would never see sunlight again.

I was racing down a back road in my 924s and a friend was driving his 318i we were doing about 90 and I went to pass him coming over a rise and saw headlights and when I tried to pull back into my lane the rear tires came loose on a large patch of sand/gravel. never been so scared in my life then going into a full spin knowing there were cars coming each way and trees on each side of the road. some how i hit the one safe dirt pull off for miles. that was the day i stopped driving like that on public roads.

[oldE]

The roof story reminded me of this.

We had just put steel on an old barn roof and, rather than use ready-made steel roof cap, we made a cap piece of 1x6 and 1x8 nailed in a V, then took it up the ladders to the peak. I went up first and as the other fellow came up with the other end, I straddled the peak, facing him and would pull the ridge cap along, then scoot back a bit, pull the ridge cap, etc. until I had a funny feeling and looked over my shoulder.

There was no roof behind me. I was looking 40 feet straight down at the ramp leading up to the first floor.

I froze for a second, almost lost control of my bowels, then caught my breath again.

Rich, the other guy said, "I thought you were getting close to the edge!"

Thanks Rich.
Les

[HHI944]

I was on the same hunting plantation as dick cheney once...

[jmaxwell]

Almost flipping the boat in the pic below. This is a fiberglass over plywood flatbottom built in 1964, no flotation. First trip out with the new motor and power trim. Gunned it and hit a wake at 45+ . Boat went up on its side, splashed back and then up on its side again. Stern was completely under water. I was fixing to bail, but then realized the motor was still running, so gunned it again and trundled the 800 yards back to the dock with the bow pointing to the sky. beached it on the ramp and bailed it out, then went skiing...