Take a moment and tell us about your adventures. For example, have you had any narrow escapes, been trapped in a cave, or maybe a close call while diving?

Mike

I've had lots of close calls, here's one of them ;

We lived at a house surrounded by large tracts of land, enough land for my friend to land his ultralight trike (similar to the one pictured).

But take-off was a different story, especially with my added weight behind him. We lined ourselves up on the longest stretch, gave it full throttle and released the brakes. We bumped and bounced along the rough paddock and accelerated to the point of no return. Lining the end of "runway" across our path was a row of 80 foot plus pine trees. We finally found flight and left the earth, but the climbing was slow and heavy. There was no way to swing away from the tree-line, we were commited to clearing the tops or crashing into the giant trees. We both stiffened and gritted our teeth as the trees loomed closer. At the very last minute an upward gust of wind lifted our little craft up and over the top ... but not without scraping the wheels over the apex of one of the pine trees.

whewwwww !!

As a lifeguard, i think im pretty good in the water...but as a newbie first year lifeguard, we get slapped around a bit... all in good fun of course...but during training, the older guards thought it would be fun if we had to do FULLY SUBMERGED practice rescues on the BIGGEST GUY IN THE POOL...one 300 or so pound senior guard...needless to say, trying to swim 12 feet up with him on one arm was pretty tiring, almost passed out from lack of oxygen...didn't take to kindly to jokes after that...

I've sky-dived a few times, and while it's pretty damn exciting, it's also pretty safe these days.

Early in my diving career I was diving in a quarry at night I forgot which way was up, and kept pushing the wrong button on my buoyancy compensator. I kept hitting the bottom and got panicy as my "buddies" and their glow sticks slowly left my view. I couldn't figure out what was happening, I got leg cramps trying to "swim" upwards. I finally sat on the bottom and talked to myself getting my wits about me, and then I realized that my compensator was working right but that my head wasn't. That was the end of my quarry diving at night. Now I stick to nice clear warm diving conditions. Most of my diving is cleaning the bottom of my boat. However, I have never been nearly as scared diving as I have sailing in a storm on the Great Lakes. Between sailing and scuba diving, I have don't think I could handle another adventure sport. Skydiving will have to wait till another lifetime. ;)

Okay I guess I will throw this at you all....I guess it was sort of an adventure. Back in 94 I was in a specialized airborne (paratrooper) unit stationed at Ft Bragg. Our main mission in life was to jump into not so pleasant areas and set up a small radar unit that could detect enemy artillary/missiles before any of the main forces were deployed....you get the picture. Well anyway back in the early fall of 94 if you all remember, we had a little mess brewing with Haiti, (which turned out pretty well). Two nights before our forces went in we were scheduled to jump in. This night was very windy so when we left the plane we were knocked about more than normal. I released my ruck and weapon onto its teather and then a big gust hit me which collapsed my chute. I was too low for my reserve and I fell the last 100 or so feet landing on my rucksack, breaking my back. So there I lay for about 4 hours before I was located....I was imobilized and and pretty drugged up for about 36 hours before i was evacuated after which I spent the next 6 months in a hospital bed back at Ft Bragg. Well to make a long story a little shorter, my military career was done at that point. I was medically discharged in late 96. I spent the next 6 months pushing myself back into shape with a little less mobility and was able to get back on the police force....so it wasnt so bad after all. If any military buffs are interested, I was in a detachment of the XVIII Airborne Corps.

Take care
Mike

How scary is that Numa_Diver!! You were so lucky.

One of my adventures was back in the late 80's. I went hiking and repelling with a Marine friend of mine in Maryland. It was my first time repelling and I was a bit nervous but was always up for something dangerous to do at the time. My friend hand-tied both our harnesses and he went over first to show me how to do it. I got all suited up and practiced what I was supposed to do. I started on my way over the edge to set the rope as my heart pounded wildly. The rock wall was about a 100 ft. Things were going smoothly until I was about 10-15 feet down and I told my friend Jimmy I felt like something was wrong with my harness. He told me not to worry and just as he said it, the harness came undone! In that split second I managed to wrap my arm with the rope and hung on for dear life as I just about messed my pants. Its funny, in a moment like that, one either panicks or they don't. For some reason I kept calm and told my friend Jimmy "to either pull me back up or watch me take a dive in that very shallow stream at the bottom." He got me back up safely and after I got my composure back, I went over the edge again several times, only this time it was a success and an absolute blast! That was a serious adrenaline rush for me.

Scarry I happen to love drag racing so as with any other sport there are certain risks involved
I went through the speed trap at the big end of the race track upside down and backwards and on fire at around 120mph!!! thank god that i didn't cheap out on my safety gear (flame retardent suit full rollcage ) and thank god for the track safety safari the truck was almost a complete write off . its been rebuilt but it is now for sale insurance dosent cover you when your on the race track silly rule ;)

I'm a water nut like most and mainly do sailing sports however another passion is F1 powerboats, we drive around on a piece of balsa wood with the power of a farrari capable of 0 - 100 mph in around 3 secs. The course is quite simple and whilst I havn't had any major incidents cross fingers last season I did have the joy of watching one of my opponants pitch poling (nose dive into a end over flip) within 2 meters of my bow, some quick reflex's avioded me becoming a messy smudge on the sea but I still required a change of underwear in the afternoon Mike Mchugh the other driver was fine but the boat didn't fair so well.