Closest You've Ever Come To Dying In The Ocean?

Thought I had a winner here, but the stories above top mine by far. Outer Banks of NC 2005, my wife and I were about chest deep in what seemed to be calm waters when an undertow gradually separated us. Then a series of 2 - 3 very large waves hit and the next thing I knew we were 20 feet apart and both going under repeatedly. I have an open water swimming background and didn't panic, but my wife who is a decent swimmer but no ocean experience, certainly did. The worst part was seeing her separate from me and her calling out I can't make it. I had the presence of mind to shout out swim with the shoreline and gestured with my arm, which she did and luckily no more waves took her under. We learned later the area of the OBX we were in (Hatteras) is called "the graveyard of the atlantic" because of the currents and undertow. To this day we both feel like she was close to drowning that day. I can't imagine if I'd saved myself but not her.

It wasn't anything that would have endangered my life, but once in Australia as a 12 year old I was on the ocean and a blue bottle fish wrapped itself many times around my leg and stung the crap out of me. The burning sensation was terrible and I was a good 2-3 minute hard swim from shore. I couldn't get it off and just swam to the beach while screaming in pain.

Did you eat the fish?

Nothing extremely life threatening but I did faceplant on a sandbar while body surfing as a teenager and going over the falls. I broke my nose outright and a month later I dislocated my neck skateboarding. I think the two incidents were related. A muscle on my neck became very swollen and made my neck crooked and I smoked weed to lessen the pain but it made me paranoid so I went to the ER and they did a CT scan and said it was a good thing I came in as I almost paralyzed myself. I had to wear a neck brace, mostly only in front of my parents. I since then have strengthened my neck quite well by slowly incorporating neck rolls and shoulder shrugs into my daily routine.

Billy Wallace wrote:

1) I broke BOTH of my femurs at The Wedge in Newport on a big day, and only made it back in because of someone seeing me struggle from the beach.

damnnn

The voice of experience...ah yes, Honolua, not a place for dumb haoles to be experimenting. My worst hold-down was @ Sunset, quad set, got rolled and dragged by #1, unable to catch a breath before #2, another hold down, one gulp of air before #3 because I realized it was literally life or death to get that one breath and ride out #4. It's not the first hold down that will kill you, it's the cumulative pounding of a gnarly set. The disorientation of a hard rollover and the bubble curtain is so severe that it's not possible to determine which way is up, and if you begin the oxygen-starved swim the wrong way, you are in serious trouble.

I was caught by the Hilo (Hawai'i) tsunami of 1960. Foolish teenager that I was, I was on a bridge. The water was around my waist.

Obviously I didn't die but I was sure that I would.

Want to read about it? Here:

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/09/tsunami/

Funny story: I was probably six years old and down the shore with my family. They had drilled into my head to never turn your back on the ocean. They were very close to me as I played along the shore. I turned my back to the ocean, for the first time in my short life. Within what felt like a second, a wave crashed upon me and quickly began to pull me out. I panicked and began swimming like a madman, screaming in terror. They were right! I thought. The wave quickly receded and I'm still swimming for dear life on the sand, not yet having realized that I'm going to live.

Closest I ever came to dying in the ocean was when I almost got run over by a tractor in Nebraska. Had there been an ocean in Nebraska it would have been an even closer call!

Won't get into it too much, but hear ya. The double peak at Sunset will wreck you. Boneyards not much better. I left North Shore because I can't tell you how many times I got caught inside/impact zone and told myself if I survive this, I am going straight in, only to go back out after I survived. Those were the days, and I ultimately wised up.