Bull sharks are one of the more aggressive species. You don't want to mess around with them, if you can avoid it. Supposedly keen on the muddy water of estuaries and known to attack swimmers in them. I shouldn't imagine they'd attack a diver though (unless he was bleeding..).
If I was a diver you wouldn't of got me in there for a gold pig! They would definitely attack. We threw the MOB (dummy) in tied to a rope and they ragged the shit out of it. Totally our fault cos we would feed them for our amusement. And true enough, we were not far offshore in the Niger Delta region and only about 30 metres deep.
In 2002 I was on a 10 metre yacht 250 miles from anywhere in the Bay of Biscay being pounded by a storm that hit us at around 2 in the morning and lasted until the following evening. I was part of a 2 man crew, he had 22 years experience - I'd done some lake sailing with my folks on Windamere as a kid and been on his boat for a few weeks but only 5 days at sea. Its a long story, but the short of it is I really cant explain how terrified I was for the first 6 hours of that storm. I lay strapped to my bunk (after I gave up at the helm as I couldn't see what the sea was doing) being winded every time the boat slammed down. We had a maximum hull speed of 7 kts, we were surfing down the front of giant waves at 13kts. By dawn I was empty inside, but when I could see what the sea was doing I got into the rhythm of it and did 8 hours at the helm while my skipper recovered. The storm blew itself out and we were becalmed 30 miles off La Coruna (we lost the engine to a fishing net crossing the continental shelf into The Bay a couple of days earlier and neither of us dared swim under the boat to free it up - something I would later do in a busy shipping lane in the Med using the galley scissors having dropped 2 diving knives in failed attempts - so we sat and waited for the wind to pick up) and even though the immediate danger had gone I was changed inside. I'd later cry as we entered La Coruna harbour in dense fog, numb fingers, hallucinating from sleep deprivation convinced I was going to run us into the harbour wall and worst of all, being unable to light the soggy roll up I'd held in my gloved hand for too long. Listening to voice mails from worried relatives was moving as we were a few days later in port than expected. Listening to someones voice who thinks you might be lost or dead is fairly harrowing. I can remember more events from 2002 than pretty much the rest of my life. If you ever have more than a few pints with me I'm likely to drone on endlessly about them.
Not wildly keen on snakes either. Staying at a campsite once in the middle of Australia and I went for a stroll up the road one evening after dark to stretch the legs and have a smoke. A car came past from behind me and in its headlights I could see snakes on the road ahead. It can get pretty cool at night in the desert regions but asphalt retains the heat of the day and snakes (I found out later - obvious really) often come out onto the roads at night to soak up the warmth. I had several hundred yards of road to cover to get back to the site in the dark and no torch. Every step was a mind game.
Not since the recession,sadly...I got 75hrs and a night rating,was halfway through my IMC before I realised that the cost of it was getting beyond me...I'm a bit of a heavy old Hector,so I only felt comfortable in four seaters,which cost a bit more as well. 172s and PA-28s are about £150 an hour now,and I need to re-validate,and a medical every year...still look up wistfully when anything GA whistles over....one day,one day
Most scared personally, just before I gave up when I was drowning, then got really calm and breathed in the water, next thing I was lying on the side of the pool spewing me guts out and coughing for Africa, with my rescuer kneeling beside me after doing mouth to mouth. I still can't swim, and have nearly drowned/drowned 4 times in all. Was very scary when my son got Meningococcal Septicaemia as well, and also finding out about/dealing with my Toddler Grand Daughters fatal Pilomyxoid Astrocytoma Brain Tumour.
The thought of drowning is nightmare territory, can't imagine what going through it is like, let alone 4 times. Can't bear to think about what might happen to my kids, worked in a Childrens hospital for a couple of years, I wasnt a parent then but now I am I've got a clearer idea of what the families must have been going through.
How can that happen to you 4 times? You're running your baths too deep! Go and learn to swim. The best place to do this is in a lagoon in the Maldives if you don't like swimming pools. Salt water (easier) and about 3 foot deep. You'd have to desperately try and drown there.
My inability to swim comes from my not being able to float, if I do it correctly I'm usually about a foot below the surface, so it's very hard to swim properly. Many teachers, swim Tutors and swimmers have tried and failed and then given up on me. Nowadays I treat deeper water with immense respect, I know if I'm in, I'm dead, all my near drowning/drowning was in my childhood/teenage years.
Water wings. Never leave home without them. Don't think she needs additional buoyancy aids to be honest..
i hear all that man,even though I fluked my 15 yards (!) as a kid,I almost drowned twice,one time in a municipal pool. But....it's never too late to learn: When you try to float,did they tell you to arch your back?I'm the same as you,"floating",is actually semi-submerged,but I learned that if you arch your back,(really arch it,no pretending!),somehow it lifts your torso and head to the surface...dunno why,but it works. I spent a good few quid on professional instruction with no real progress until I discovered the above...and then my missus told me to try the breast stroke instead of the crawl,and I was away with the mixer...I'm not fast,but I can swim 50m lengths for hours
Inability to float? Is that an admission that you are dense? Or is it due to the concrete shoes you were made to wear?
I'm similar to others here, I don't really float in freshwater. I just slowly sink. Crawl is possible but difficult as half my energy goes towards keeping me afloat. It's important to be able to swim though - especially if your motorcycle route takes you near lakes and rivers
I can't swim crawl. Its not so much that I sink, its just exhausting which is a sure way to drown however buoyant you are. I could swim breast stroke for hours. I sink if I try backstroke though.
I can't float either and the panic I get just to get one end of a pool to the other gives me a panic attack and I can't breathe I never want to be trapped in a car underwater
