What's the closest you've ever come to drowning?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I had a similar experience when being taught to swim. I was also around 5 years old. I was taken to the local YMCA where they gave swimming lessons to kids. The way they taught us to go under water without holding our noses was to have us all hold hands in a circle and then at the count of three we went under water. Let me tell you, that has to be one of the stupidest ideas anyone ever had. There’s nothing quite like forcing kids who can’t swim to hold each other under water. There were a couple teachers in the circle but I think they were oblivious to the flaw in this plan.

They gave the instructions that they would count to three and go under, they asked if everyone was ready and I shouted “No” then apparently they skipped right to “3” and dragged me under water. The people on either side of me had death grips on my hands and I was struggling and swallowing water, I think I managed to get one person to let go of me and then about that time couldn’t fight anymore. I think someone who hadn’t been in the pool dragged me out right then since the teachers in the circle didn’t seem to notice the child drowning in their midst. I lay at the side of the pool coughing up water and gasping and one of the damn teachers asked why I didn’t hold my breath and I said because I wasn’t ready. My mother finally showed up and I told her I wasn’t going to take swimming lessons from those people anymore. I was told I could not swim in the big pool unless I tool the lessons but I didn’t care. At least they did not try to drown me in the yellow kiddie pool.

A couple years later we moved to Florida where there was water everywhere! So I eventually learned to swim from our dog. Yes, I became quite adept at the dog paddle. I never did learn how to go under water without holding my nose so I didn’t go under water very often. Eventually we lived only a short walk from the beach, so whenever our Northern relatives came to visit we’d have to escort them to the beach. Knowing my limits I always stayed in water where I could touch bottom. One year my 17 year old cousin came to visit with his burnout girlfriend. I was about 9 or 10 at the time and this chick thought it would be fun to sneak up behind me and hold my head under water for what seemed like several minutes. I swallowed a great deal of the Gulf, actually saw my life pass before my eyes (granted I was pretty young so that didn’t take long) and then I started fighting and I believe I scratched her arms pretty good. Then she let me up and got all snotty with me because I didn’t have to scratch her, she was just playing around. I told her I didn’t think nearly being drowned was much fun and I avoided them for the rest of their visit. She held me under way longer than any normal person would do as a joke. Crazy druggie chick eventually made my cousin’s life miserable but of course he didn’t listen to me when I told him she was nuts.

A few more years later and a friend of mine and I often went to the beach together. She was about as good a swimmer as I was, which was rather sad. We never went into water over our heads. She also was usually forced to watch her little sister, who was of course a brat. One day we went to the beach and the waves were a little high. Little sister was told to stay in the shallows and we went out a little farther so we could ride the waves. We could still touch the sea floor with our feet but when the waves came they’d lift us up which was kind of fun. Until little sister tried to swim out to us.

We heard her behind us and turned around to see her struggling toward us and she couldn’t swim at all! She was starting to panic because the waves would go over her head. We yelled at her to go back but she kept coming toward us so my friend swam toward her to drag her back to shore. I followed behind. As soon as my friend reached her sister the kid clamped on to her neck, stopped swimming and dragged her under. We were yelling for the kid to not panic and keep swimming but she wouldn’t listen. I caught up to my friend and then the kid grabbed onto me and pulled me under. I swear the kid must have been eating rocks.

I tried to remember things I’d seen about rescuing swimmers and you were supposed to grab them around the neck and swim with them sort of floating behind you but this kid grabbed you so tightly around the neck that you couldn’t reposition her or breathe when you weren’t being dragged underwater and she was like an octopus, an 800 pound octopus. We were still where we could touch bottom with our feet but the waves would pull us off the bottom, then the kid would pull us back down. I think my friend was screaming for help while her sister was drowning me. Then my friend tried to help get her sister off me and the kid clamped onto her again. I tried to pull them both and keep out of reach of the octopus child but I wasn’t very effective. At this point I saw an adult swimming toward us and I went back to shore. All he had to do was free my friend of her sister and she could swim back herself. I went back to our towels and coughed up seawater and my friend and her sister went to the rescuers house and were given chocolate. They called for me to join them but I was so ticked off about my third near drowning and her brat of a sister who never, ever listened to us. They were quite happy after getting chocolate and the brat sister didn’t get that she’d almost killed us all. I didn’t go swimming with them again for quite some time and even then I wouldn’t go farther than chest high, even with waves.

A few years later we moved away from the beach and I spend a lot of time in the summer at my grandparents trailer park where they had a pool. It was usually pretty empty and I taught myself to swim there. I graduated from the dog paddle to a middlin’ breaststroke and back stroke. I even got better at going underwater without holding my nose. I seemed to do much better learning how to swim without anyone trying to teach me.

So far, I’ve had 3 near-drownings, do I win a prize? A pair of water wings* perhaps?

*[sub]Not to be worn around the ankles. [sub]
Sorry, Peter. :wink:

22

Age 2.

I fell off a pier into Lake Michigan.

Dad had to dive in & rescue me. During the incident, I was bitten by a Pike or Muskilunge, & had to have stitches.

23

While careening down a water slide, I belly-flopped into the pool and got the wind knocked out of me. I gulped a mouthful of water when I tried to breathe, panicked, and sank like a stone. My mom dived into the pool fully clothed and pulled me out. Scary. I was 9.

24

They told me at the local swimming hole that going down the rock slide was fun. I didn’t know sinking to the bottom of the pool below like a stone was part of the fun. :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

25

We went to Cancun in February of '95 when I was 13. I’d already taken swimming lessons several times before. My form sucked and I couldn’t dive, but I could still handle myself in the water.

One afternoon we went snorkeling on the beach on this island about a mile offshore. It was shallow and only a few yards from shore, but here were some rather craggy rocks at the bottom that I was exploring. I was focused on the bottom, so I wasn’t watching where I was going, and I swam into a rip tide.

In retrospect, I can see that my predicament was getting some attention among the other beachgoers. Concern was beginning to dawn on me when this guy came over and reached out his hand to pull me in. As he helped me I was amazed at how strong the current I was in really was.

I must’ve been only 30 feet from shore, so I wasn’t expecting there to be anything dangerous. I wasn’t scared so much as I was thinking, “This is new. How am I gonna deal with this?” I figured that it was something like a barrier that I could get across if I swam hard enough, but that clearly didn’t work.

I don’t remember if I thanked the guy. I might have actually been a shit about it and insisted that I had things under control. I wonder how much danger I was really in?

Later in the trip we went wave jumping at a different beach where the waves were insane. I must’ve gotten yanked off my feet about three or four times, almost lost my suit once, and had my goggles become a sacrifice to the Mayan sea god. My parents and sisters seemed to have an easy enough time of it, but they were all holding hands and I was too cool to do that. So I probably had put myself in unnecessary danger yet again.

My ex had quite an experience with a riptide too. She’s a very good swimmer, and on a school trip she was out swiming in the ocean with her friend. I forget if she just didn’t know how to handle the rip tide or what, but they both ended up about a hundred yards from shore and couldn’t touch the bottom. I don’t remember how long she said she was out there, but fortunately a guy came along in a boat and picked them. No one knew they’d gone out and she seriously thought they both were gonna die.

26

Muffin, wild lookin’ river !! Great pics.

27

Christmas day, 1981. I was barely 3, and had received a tricycle for christmas. We were at my grandparent’s place, and since the only paved area was the surrounds of their pool, I was doing laps. Everyone was outside - mum was sunning herself by the pool, dad and grandpa were at the BBQ, then all of a sudden - no Robin - I had taken the corner (at the deepend) a little fine and fallen in. But I was on my new tricycle, and there was no way I was letting it go, so I, and it, both went straight to the bottom.

Dad saw me go in, and took the time to remove his new (christmas present) digital watch (remember how cool those were?) before diving in to rescue me (and the tricycle, since I still wouldn’t let go of it).

I had already begun swimming lessons, so I could swim a little, but I was just too attached to that tricyle.

28

At age 7 (8?) I almost drowned in the YMCA’s indoor pool, right in front of everybody. I’d been floating on my back & drifted to the deeper end. So I tried to swim to the side. Paddled furiously, but gave up after a couple of eternities. Turns out I was only about 6" from the side, the lifeguard just yanked my drippy self out & I sat alone on the concrete.

My mom enrolled us in swimming lessons every summer. Every summer we’d jump into the pool and demonstrate our skills for the instructors. And every summer I’d start over again in the “Beginners” class.

29

There were two instances in my life where I came close to death by drowning.

The first time, my family went to the local seaside resort during the holidays. I was trying to practise my floating skills quite close to shore. I stayed close to shore because I didn’t know how to swim. I still don’t. Anyway, all of a sudden I was pulled farther and farther away by the current. When I realised this, I tried standing up and wade back to shore. But the current kept pulling me farther away and I kept going under and swallowing gallons of seawater. Just when I thought that this was it, this was how I’m gonna die…the current pushed me all the way back to the shore. Y’know that scene in cartoons or comedies when the guy kisses the ground in relief. Yeah, I did that.

The second time was at another beach in another family outing. I had goggles on (but no snorkle) and went diving, again close to shore. The first thing I saw underwater was some jellyfish. Right in front of me. I panicked. I opened my mouth. Seawater went into my lungs. I thought, well, here we go again. Fortunately, the water wasn’t so deep and I was able struggle back to land. Didn’t kiss the sand this time. I did curse the jellyfish, though.

The first time was scarier. Both times took place in the mid-'80s so I must have been in my early teens.

These are the reasons why I’m a landlubber.

30

Thanks. It’s a real sweet run.

31

Two childhood occasions:

  • Swept over a waterfall. Probably wasn’t that close to drowning, given how shallow the watercourse was, but pretty damn frightening nevertheless. For a while I still had the watch with the gouges on the face.

  • Venice Beach, playing in the surf. I suddenly felt exhausted, and all of a sudden there was a lifeguard yelling at me. I managed to get out, but, damn.

32

I thought of another time where, while I didn’t go under and didn’t almost drown, it could have been incredibly dangerous. When I was about 13, we went camping at someplace in Ontario called Sand Hills. After you scramble down the steep cliff to the beach, there’s a narrow strip of sand, then the lake. I was floating near shore on an inflatable mattress-type-thing, lying on my stomach. Well, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was a long way out on the lake! It was way beyond shouting distance. I didn’t panic, but it was one of those “oh shit!” situations. As I recall, it took me at least a half hour to paddle back to shore. I don’t remember my family even noticing that I’d been missing. If they had, I don’t know what they could have done to rescue me. I got back the only way there was to do so. I’m a land-lubber now.

33

I was in my mid-20s and a strong swimmer. On a trip to Nags Head, NC (which is notorious for under-tows), I was about 25 feet from shore and easily within 10 feet of several other people. I was also caught in an undertow and the harder I tried to get to shore the more exhausted I got. The rule is “swim down the shore and you’ll get out of the undertow” - this was completely out of train of thought. I eventually made it to shore and lay in the sand for a good ten minutes resting and thinking “I damn near drowned.”

34

A couple of summers ago, I went white water rafting on the Gauley River in West Virginia. This is a world-class river with class 4 and 5 rapids. We were coming up on a rapid with a whirlpool nicknamed “Hell Hole,” and the rafting guide told us, “you DON’T want to swim through that thing, so hold on tight.” Well guess what, I got bounced out of the raft right before we went through the rapid, so I went through Hell Hole in the water. It was not fun. All I can remember is seeing green and white water above me, and constantly struggling to get to the top for a quick breath then being pummelled by waves again and again. It was scary! It may have lasted for 30 seconds, but it seemed like 5 minutes.

35

Oh hey, I just saw this! So there are two of us who almost drowned on the Gauley!

36

According to the reports from my father, when I was a wee tike (probably about 1 or 2, and able to walk, whenever that occurs), we went to the AirForce base pool. My father went looking for me when I wandered off, and I was found…

sitting on the bottom of the deep end, happy as a clam, looking around. :eek:

My father jumped in and rescued me. It’s never caused any problems with fear of water or anything. (I believe I’m part fish).

The closest I’ve ever come as an adult was on my second SCUBA dive following my certification. At about 15 ft, we did a “safety stop” on our way to the surface. My regulator stopped delivering air, even though there was 600lbs of pressure left on the gauge. I obviously signaled my dive buddy, and surfaced quickly (expending what air was left in my lungs on the way up). Since I had no real air in the tanks, I was unable to power-inflate my BDC (boyancy vest), and needed to do it by mouth. Not the easiest task after a minor emergency, with a slightly too heavy weight belt on. Thankfully, I’m a VERY good swimmer, and was able to stave off panic, get the vest inflated, and make the long swim back to the boat (I had navigated underwater horribly, and surfaced about 200yds from the boat, not an easy swim in 2-3ft seas, with all the dive gear.)

After that, I understand how panic happens, and if not for my superior swimming skills, and inate lack of fear of the water, I’m sure it could have gotten very ugly, very quickly.

-Butler

37

Reminds me of a TV movie we were shown at school (not sure which class, or why) about a paraplegic (sp?) who did justr that.

My own close call was when I was about 10 or so, at lessons during school. Getting back in after a visit to the loo (even as a kid I would never have urinated in the pool) I slipped somehow and went straight in head first. It probably wasn’t that close of a call as the instructor was around in seconds to pull me out, but it seemed (as they say) to go on for a quite while.

I almost got the hang of swimming the lesson or two before that, but I never really got back into it and never visited a swimming pool again outside of a short second set of lessons through school at about age 12.

38

I was maybe five or six, and my mom and I were staying in a long-term hotel while I went to this little school in San Antonio for the deaf. I remember playing with a couplethree other long-term kids at the hotel in the pool.

They decided it’d be cool to gang up on me and hold me underwater until I was about to panic and start breathing water. I flailed around until they got bored and finally let me up. Then when I got out of the water to storm off, one of the other girls grabbed me by the ankle and tripped me flat on the concrete with a mighty smack.

More than 20 years later, I’m still bitter about that incident – none of the adults around the pool seemed to have noticed much of anything. :rolleyes:

Fortunately, it didn’t have much effect on my cumulative experience with water – I went on to become a member of the high school swim team.

39

My story’s pretty much like nyctea’s. I don’t dare swim in oceans like the rest of you folks :wink:

My friends and I were taken on a trip to the Youghegheney (SP?) in PA. None of us had ever rafted before…someone thought it’d be OK to go without a guide.

In the first few mins we lost our map. Then our lunches went overboard. Then my friend went over and we nearly creamed him between a rock and the raft. That was scary.

Towards the end we got into a heavy rapid on which you’re supposed to veer right to avoid a rock. Since we had no map, we didn’t know. So we didn’t veer.

We hit the rock at full speed and the boat flipped. I smashed into the rock and then got trapped under the boat for way longer than you should be trapped under a boat and still live. That was really f’n weird.

Finally got out from under the boat before drowning and then got ripped into the current. I was trying to remember what they’d told us about how to stay upright in the water, how to hold yourself, etc. But I had on a bathing suit over slippery plastic-y shorts…so my shorts kept getting pulled off and made it hard to stay upright.

I was mostly worried about my friends who couldn’t swim. I heard everyone calling for them while I tried to right myself. In the meantime I was getting banged up pretty good from being dragged through the shallow water.

Finally some kayakers came by to help us out. The guy who got me had his name on the back of his jacket. Honest to god it was “Suerte” (“luck” in Spanish).

He dropped me off on a rock … but it was on the opposite bank from my friends and the boat. I had to swim across the current to get to them. It was WAAAY scary. Luckilly I’m a good swimmer.

They sold t-shirts at the gift shop that had a poem about how it feels to almost drown. We all bought them.

I guess it’s not such a unique occurrance :slight_smile:

40

When my twin sister and I were very little we went with our mom to a friend’s house. My sister and I were playing on the top two steps in the pool, when my sister fell off into water over her head and began to panic. I saw she was in trouble and went to pull her up, but instead she pulled me in with her. Our mom was so engrossed in her conversation that she never looked over at us. So then we were tangled up, both of us trying to flail to the surface, and trying to call out to our mom, but our mouths would fill up with water. I remember thinking it was hopeless, when all of the sudden, she looked over at us, ran over and pulled us out. I think my sister and I both cried.

The other time was when I was living in Santa Cruz and would go to the beach every thursday with a group of people from work. I had been doing tons of body surfing that summer and was kind of showing off that day, because the waves were at least twice as high as they normally were. Unfortunately, while I was in the water, the waves got bigger and bigger until they were probably four or five times as big as normal. I tried to swim into shore, but kept having to turn and dive under the next wave so I wouldn’t be pounded to death by it. Then I’d get sucked back to where I was before. I remember starting to feel totally exhausted, knowing I wouldn’t be able to keep it up much longer. I finally was able to call out the name of the first guy I saw on the beach - as a wave finally pushed me toward shore. He waded in and helped me get out of the water. My friends told me that it looked like I was doing just fine out there until I had called out - they had no clue that I was fighting for my life, they thought I was just having fun in the big waves. They would have watched me drown if I had just a little less luck.