Off Shore Swimming

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by Cap Erict3

A couple of decades ago I was hemmed in a hole in the rocks ... Plenty of things bite in this world. In and out of the water. Sharks, alligators, dogs, cats, claws, teeth and tentacles everywhere.

There is an FDR quote concerning fear. Look it up sometime.

Run with the big dogs or stay on the porch with the puppies is a quote I am found of.

Frankie wasn't watching his pressure gauge drop breath by breath while hemmed in a hole by a Goliath grouper or GWS when he said it tho. No sir, in yer spot it wasn't just the fear to be afraid of. Fear don't bite. Now that yer in the GOM ya got all them pythons to worry about too. Look it up sometime.

To paraphrase Robert Duval in Apocalypse Now: FRANKIE DON'T DIVE! [The original line was something like: Charlie (the Viet Cong) don't surf! I mention this for the Gen X and Y ers who believe time itself began at their birth.

Something else Frankie said [per Wikipedia, 1932] was:

I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all American history - one which piled bureau on bureau, commission on commission, and has failed to anticipate the dire needs or reduced earning power of the people. Bureaus and bureaucrats have been retained at the expense of the taxpayer. We are spending altogether too much money for government services which are neither practical nor necessary. In addition to this, we are attempting too many functions and we need a simplification of what the Federal government is giving the people."

That sentiment hasn't weathered over time any better than the fear comment in my view.

[DumnMad]

Originally Posted by downunder

All the american sourced dive text books listed Barracuda a a possible hazard. I think nore because of the potential of those large teeth rather than actual incidents. There are plenty of places around the world you can swim with large schools of large animials swimming around you.

Not aware of and issues here in Aus so our comment was that barracuta only ate Americans.

List of fatal shark attacks in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

274 fatals in more than a hundred years. Couple recently not on the list.
I was somewhat cautioned about Aussie waters because the surfer on his yacht next to us a couple of weeks ago had one leg missing.(He is still a surfer so probably knows the odds.)

Unlike road accidents those who die are not forgotten but get into Wikipedia

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

List of fatal shark attacks in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

274 fatals in more than a hundred years. Couple recently not on the list.
I was somewhat cautioned about Aussie waters because the surfer on his yacht next to us a couple of weeks ago had one leg missing.(He is still a surfer so probably knows the odds.) ...

You know that sucka has to be thinking, "What are the odds I'll get hit again?"

[Cap Erict3]

Willie S said it very well.


“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

While it seems natural for prudence to speak a bit louder as I grow older and weaker, letting her words of caution steal the spice from life is a crime.

I have never rappelled without the pucker factor as I put my weight on the line but I do enjoy the trip.


The deeper and farther from structure you get, the more sparsely populated the water is with aquatic life. The kraken can't be everywhere.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

You know that sucka has to be thinking, "What are the odds I'll get hit again?"

Unless he understands "the Gamblers Fallacy", in which case he is likely to be thinking. "The odds are still the same as they always were if I behave in the same way - and they didn't work out too favourably last time."

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by Cap Erict3

... The deeper and farther from structure you get, the more sparsely populated the water is with aquatic life. The kraken can't be everywhere.

Yes. BUT:

Originally Posted by StuM

Unless he understands "the Gamblers Fallacy", in which case he is likely to be thinking. "The odds are still the same as they always were if I behave in the same way - and they didn't work out too favourably last time."

Yepper. The one-legged guy is obviously already one of the unluckiest surfers on a planet of seven billion surfers.

I have heard that the only reason lightning doesn't strike the same place twice is because that particular place isn't there anymore.

[a64pilot]

We will all die, that is inevitable. I enjoy certain risk taking activities, mostly because through good equipment and training I feel I can mitigate the risk.
But, I've always had this primal fear of being eaten alive, being killed and then eaten is one thing, but to actually die by being eaten, well that is the sort of thing my nightmares are made from.

[sparau]

Groupers are impressive, AFAIK they have only ever attacked humans to get at a fish. Seen this video? Big fishy!

Grouper eating 4ft shark

I can understand freaking out in deep water, I used to do it sometimes waiting for the wind <1km offshore trying to waterstart a windsurfer. I'd be ok for 5 minutes, or 10 then you start wondering about all the splashing, kicking legs and the dark water… LOL

The real danger of course was offshore winds, exhaustion or clocking yourself on the head in a big wipeout but there's no telling your mind that !

[Blue Crab]

I once jumped aboard some kind of early wooden Sunfish and headed out Ala Wai Harbor into a fresh breeze. I began to notice the speed fall off about the time I noticed I was sinking!

Dang!

I hadn't been out all that long. I'm a serious water guy from a beach town but all I could think of was my white shoes splashing around.

Bigass yacht came along and towed me in.

I may have told this story before.

[Normanby]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

Yepper. The one-legged guy is obviously already one of the unluckiest surfers on a planet of seven billion surfers. .

Seven billion surfers?
Is the entire planet's population in the water?
No wonder the sea level is rising...



Matt
Compass 28

[Blue Crab]

Guess he can only hang 5 these days.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Normanby

Seven billion surfers?
Is the entire planet's population in the water?
No wonder the sea level is rising...



Matt
Compass 28

Sufferers perhaps.

b.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

Yepper. The one-legged guy is obviously already one of the unluckiest surfers on a planet of seven billion surfers.

Originally Posted by Normanby

Seven billion surfers?
Is the entire planet's population in the water?
No wonder the sea level is rising...

Matt
Compass 28

Hey, cut the crab some slack! Not sure crabs know how to count anyways. Who knows, with those funky crab eyes, maybe they do see seven billion surfers?



Later,
Dan