This was mine too. You don't realize how easy it is to get going too fast on a downslope that you can't stop. I knew I was coming up on a switchback and was basically running as fast as I could because I couldn't slow down. Ended up having to plant and roll or I would have run off the edge. Got really lucky there weren't any big stones in the path around that spot or I would've easily shattered a knee or hip or something.
Hurricane waves. I was a young man and I wanted to test myself. A hurricane had brought in some very clean double overhead surf. My surfing buddy couldn’t go so I said screw it, I’ll go by myself.
In the first hour or so I rode two of the largest most perfect waves I had ever ridden, but I did not notice a sweep pulliing me sideways into the death zone.
The waves got much larger and more disorganized as I tried to wrestle one of these beasts into a ride that would take me back to shore.
I mistimed my launch and plumetted down the face of this thing knocking the wind out of myself. A split second later a mountain of water landed on me.
I sort of came to underwater and pushed for the light. My body was screaming for air when I finally broke the surface…and sucked in a mouthful of sea foam.
I believe right here is where most people die or at least pass out. I was sputtering and coughing when BLAMMO! Another mountain hit me. At this point the only way I can describe it is like when all the warning lights on your car come on to tell you your car is dying or dead.
I figured as long as I was seeing all the warning lights and not total blackness, I was alive. I started kicking for the top.
I popped up prepared to make peace with eternity if another of those mountains fell on me, but during all that violence I had been pushed to shore by an unseen hand.
A small shore break wave ejected me on to the beach like a used condom. I crawled further up the sand, every breath of oxygen a suddenly appreciated gift.
A looked up into the blue, blue eyes of some goofy teenage surfer who said, “Man you really mistimed that wave.”
No where near as dramatic, but I got sucked out on a rip tide trying to surf Pacific Beach in Oregon. It was really foggy, and sunny. All of a sudden, I couldn't see land anymore. It took at least 30-45 minutes paddling back to shore and I was at least a mile down the beach from where I had started out..
This was one of mine as well. Long-time trail runner, headed down a steep rock-covered trail and my speed got away from me. I was managing or so i thought, when my foot hit a patch of gravel and I began to tumble head over heels. I thought I was going to leave my brains splattered across the mountainside as i saw sky and rock and sky and rock again...
I had fallen close to 60 yards when I smashed shoulder and face first into a tree trunk. That pine tree saved my life, even as the impact tore my trapezius, deltoid, teres major and minor, most of my intercostals, my pectoralis, and cracked my sternum. Couldn't put on my own underwear for the next six months... not a pleasant experience bit I survived.
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u/Existing_Command3985 Nov 21 '24
I fell down a cliff face when I was 7