Spine tingling moment while in the water.

Took a young French guy windsurfing back in the 80's in Pittwater NSW. He could sail but not tack without falling in. Anyway we sailed from Palm Beach nearly all the way to The Basin ( a long way......). Anyway at our most distant point from origin we saw a dorsal fin and I said "Gnarly duuuude a dolphin."(remember it's the 80's). Anyways turned out it wasn't a dolphin it was a shark BUT it had a miraculous ability to transform my friends tacking abilities. He didn't fall in once on the return journey. He was $hit scared but had an ace story for back home.

Just about every surf at strick------ (whoops nearly mention secret spot in WA).....sometimes biggish sometimes not but there seems to be ALWAYS that one rogue wave........usually just as you've missed a smaller one or have drifted in just a tad......oooooh FUC- padddddddddle padddddle too late
BROWN SHORTS
Not to mention the very real possibility of a visit from unwelcome sea inhabitants


BROWN SHORT. Big time at "playful" serangan last year....same reason as above......but no sea life.. Katana was rippin while I was ****tn......got my manhood up paddle for one....missed it .....turned around to paddle back.......horizon missing as "playful 6-8 footer......exploded on my arse
It removed my booties, left my boardies around my ankles and me climbing my leg rope ,,,,,,

Humbled but at least boardies got a cleanout

I went out one winter too soon after having had the flu for 2-3 weeks and on the paddle out didn't have the strength to push through another wave and got caught by the clean-up set... rag-dolled me so much I was unable to break through the foam to grab half a breath, came to the surface seeing spots and felt sick when I saw the next set coming... went in without catching a wave but having learnt an important lesson.

Also as a young bloke I used to surf until I had spaghetti arms... which is OK in summer fun, but did it a few times in bigger stuff and a couple of times found myself in a bit of trouble... young and stupid. Now I leave enough energy to get myself out through a set or paddle in...

Paddled out using a rip and the set of the day rolled in as i was making my way round a rocky point. I recall being smashed against the shellfish covered rocks several times, every time i tried to grab at a holding i was sucked back into the next wave which repeated my experience. The last wave must of been big enough to wash me onto the point. One ruined wetsuit, one smashed 'borrowed' mates first ever board and a long time off work with stitched legs.

Sitting out back at Meatworks (Kaikoura) and thought I saw a submerged log about 20m away. Second glance revealed it was a 4m Great White (its a surprise when your log has fins, gills and eyes). As it did a swim by, me and the other 2 surfers out all clumped together then paddled for shore. Saw the mal rider getting up to his feet as I got pitched over the falls. Bounced off the bottom and got recirculated a few times, washed up nearly in the shorey. The other surfer next to me and I went to retrieve our boards and paddle the last 20m to shore, only to find out our leggies were intertwined (happened as we went over the falls next to each other).

Got it sorted, sprinted up the rocks, lay in the back of my Kombi for about 2 days muttering to myself, heavily self medicating with medicinal herbs.

probably about 16 or 17 spearfishing. cranky at the lack of fish I was finding I was swimming back to my dads boat alone, about 120 klm's offshore. I was breathing faily heavily for some reason - recovering from the last dive and then I just kept breathing deeply and decided to dive under the boat just to see how far I could get. We were andchored in 100 feet and you could just make out shapes on the bottom. I shut my eyes, relaxed and dove below the boat. After a while I opened them and was surprised to see that I was close to the bottom. I leveled out and tried to chase a mackerel that was nearby. I decided I had better not press my luck as I had never been this deep beofre and turned around to head to the surface when there was a large green jobfish following me. I speared it on my way up. I didn't have a float line however so had to try and swim the fish and the gun up to the surface. I realised I had made a mistake. I remained calm but was really swimming hard trying to pull the fish to the surface. I was half way, but decided it was too dangerous and ditched my gun and headed up top speed. I was worried I was going to shallow water blackout and I was just repeating dont blackout to myself as I could feel strange things starting to happen. I got to the surface and wy eyes were wiggling and I had what is known as a samba - where you go all shaky and dizzy - it happens right before you pass out. I was pretty close to Shallow water blackout and dying. My old man would have come back and not been able to find me and eventually my body would have been recovered under the boat. this is actually a fairly common scenario and happened off here a few years later with another skippers son. People tend to push themselves at the boat because they feel it's safer.

My son is only 8 but he comes spearing with me and I know there will come a time when he gets older where he will be at risk of the same thing. I can only try to make sure he doesn't dive alone and try and educate him. People worry about sharks while spearfishing but by far the biggest danger is shallow water blackout.
(no great whites up here)

surfing at rather sizey g-land half way out as sets about to hit and the water goes into a white frenzy of fish. cleaned up by 10 - 12ft wave with 2 long toms up my shorts.

crocodiles when learning sharks when island hopping.
running out of water allways been my sketchiest tho.

Another one from my youth days... Fishing with my old man when about 15yrs old at a Cardwell Boat ramp in North QLD. Sitting about 1mt back from the water edge when we see a rather large tail disappear back into the water about 3mt away from us. Told by the local a 4mt croc loves that boat ramp of a night.

We moved rather quick that night. We now understand why we were not catching fish. Never even heard the big bugger come out of the water. Nice croc tracks and tail slide left on the edge in the morning though.

Dragging a good mate out if the water unconscious and not breathing and having to resuscitate him. When he came around all I could do was cry. He couldn't understand why I was so upset...

As an Adelaide teenager of the eighties my friends and and I used to partake in certain legalish substancesand do stupid things to ease boredom my mate and I decided to row an old fridge across the onka river we remarkably made it halfway across when my mate decided to stand and salute. Capsising. And sinking the fridge with me trapped in the fridge compartment the harder I pushed to lift it off me the further my legs pushed into the mud -I was. Sucking on small pocketsof air between panicked. Pushing and strug[ling. I thought. I was gone. Till I felt an arm. I grabbed it and will he pulled I half dug and squirmed under the the lip of the door swallowing mud and foul brown water stirred up. From the bottom I was only down for. Two minutes but it was a lifetime my mate says he saved me. But if the twat didnt stand stand up it wouldn't of. Happened

Many yrs ago , we (me and 3 mates ) paddled out to south passage at Lancilin, 35 mins, cause then we never had to share with anyone else.
Even on a small swell it broke head high'
There was this cyclone called Alby coming down the coast, so we were pumped thinking the swell would pick up a bit and we'd have it to ourselves.After 2 hours of constant 8ft plus, these dark lines appeard, we paddled like f@ck , but as far out as we paddled it still looked like we were going to be caught inside and smashed.
for the first time EVER, I was sure we would die that day, it was f2KIN FREAKY!!
TO this day I have never been in swell like that.
I made it up the face of the first wave and looked back at my mates who were about 4 mtrs behind me, there was 2 mtrs between them, it feathered as I broke through, there was more comming and they were bigger!!, paddling with my heart jumping out of my chest I looked back to see Jims head and shoulders break through, but then he started to get sucked back , and go over the falls , his eyes were bigger than golf balls, over he went . So there is me in water so deep I didn't think waves would break , and still paddling towards the horizon. I made it over 3 more , then it went flat and there was nothing but white water behind me, no mates!
Then one by one their boards and popped up with them hundreds of yards away, I thought they were dead and me being that far out alone the bitey factor started to enter my head.
they all made it back out , we decided that it was time to go in.
I would not like to estimate how big they were , but they dewarfed light poles.
Never , Never , except being circled by a 4mtr white at Trigg point , nothing has scared me soooo much!!

More spine tinglingly stupid in this case - Desperate for a fast blat and in the second season of the GPS team challenge, I decided to go to Melville in WA ,tide was low, wind about 18 knots, water flat as and could not understand why there was 3 out on the water, rigged the 6.9 Raf-jet and the 93 ltr and belted out towards the sand bar aiming fro the channel which I could easily see (That would have been a good time to stop) ting ting ting ta ta ta ting ting ta ting as I get to the bar, I sat lower in the harness to try and get more MFP and wished I could levitate, then farrrrrrrrrrrking boom, spalt!...... I deserved it! Bloody stupid, but windsurfing is a funny sport and when the red mist descends.....Well ya know!

GT

Walking out from the beach into head high waves . I decided to do a back flip as a wave broke and go over the falls with it.
Kinda like superman but upside down in the lip. No idea why , just a stupid spur of the moment decision.
Not surprisingly I smashed by head into the sand bar and paralysed myself. I was also concussed.I washed around in the next few waves barely able to think and completely unable to move.
Slowly the fog lifted and i tried to put my hands down to the sand to press off and get out of the water. I could hear the water gurgling and some people playing nearby and my own heart beat. My arms just would'nt respond. My fingers slowly started to shake and then I started to spasm. In one of the spasms i managed to get onto my side on the sandbar (any one who knows Scarboro beach, W.A will know how shallow these summer sandbars are) and gasped some breath. As I got some breaths in I started to recover and knelt on the sand bar as waves washed past me. Twenty minutes later I slowly stood up and shuffled towards the beach. My vision was wonky, I was shaking and was shuffling like steady Eddie and had a headache that I have never come close to replicating. I called my GF and went home and slept for two days. Probably had a brain injury and should have went to hospital but at at the time I just felt destroyed and the urge to collapse in a dark room was completely over powering.

I don't do over the falls, backward, Jesus Christ back flips any more but strangely am now very good on the piano and speak fluent Japanese despite never learning either