went whitewater rafting last thursday in the river aude at axat.
if anyone knows the area they will know what it is like.
very narrow gorges with very rough fast flowing water.
after a 12k descent we entered the last and biggest set of rapids on the trip.
about a quater of the way in the raft hit a stopper and buckled a bit in the middle where i was sat, i fell backwards into the water.
in a instant i was washed away from the raft.
i got in a position on my back, feet 1st, and after a hundred yds or so managed to grab a rock on the right hand side of the river.
by now the raft was coming towards me but too fast and too far out for me to make a dive/jump for it.
i just watched it float by with the french guide shouting something i could not understand.
i clung to the rock for maybye 10 minutes thinking what the **** to do.
i could not stand up, but could see some trees hanging down lower down the gorge on my side, so i decided to try and float down to them.
bad bad move.
as soon as i let go of the rock i picked up speed and there was no way i was ever gonna get to the trees or be able to grab them.
i was in the correct position in the water, feet forward face up, but the water was splashing up in my face making it impossible to see and hard to breathe.
i saw the raft lower down the gorge on the left and as i floated past i could not see the guide, just my mates looking horrified.
i then entered the biggest rapids in the gorge and was thrown down below the water.
if i was in under the water for 30 seconds i might be exagerating, but it seemed like ages and i seriously thought i was a goner, no joking.
i was terrified, trying to get back to the top, taking on water.
i came up and on my right saw a calm spot near the bank.
i managed to scramble on to the bank, and lay there throwing up.
about 10 minutes later the raft came down and saw me.
they came over and pulled me on the boat.
the guide gave me the biggest bollocking i have ever had for moving from the spot i originaly got hold of the rock.
after i asked him how he would have got me out of the water from where i was and back to the boat.
no way on earth could we have swam across the rapids to where the raft was moored when i passed it.
i consider myself a good swimmer, and a big rough fecker who will have a go at anything, but i seriously was terrified. 😳

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOlJIeyDdug

He was right then.

Bloody hell, thats sounds scary. At least you didn’t need a bath that night 😉

when i crashed on bamford clough, theres somethign about fying head first towards a pile of rocks that makes you appreciate the next fe milliseconds.

Sounds like he was a crap guide TBH.

He would have came back up, thrown a rope to you then swung you round and across the current into a convenient eddy.

george, i let go before he came back.
it was my fault i think.
the bloke was sound.

I was on Sca Fell once, in December, with no kit and a mate who was in jeans. I remember the pair of us clinging on to the side of a craggy bit, with a sheer drop onto rocks just to one side, and 100mph winds trying to rip us off the hill.

Bit silly, that one.

Ear, Ton; why is a standard TV aerial incapable of receiving dijical telly? What makes a ‘dijical’ one special?

He should have explained what to do if you left the raft, dangers of trees and what to do if you got stuck in a hole/pour over like it sounds you did.

You survived though. So all is good.

fred, all aerials are digital. if the signal strength is there.

Really? The TV aerial bloke came today, to connect the wire up (part of the service contract my landlord has with the housing association), and he said I’d need a dijical aerial, if i want Freeview and all that. I’m not fussed, as I don’t have any kind of telly, but I was surprised that a bit of wire determines whether or not you can get dijical telly or not. I thought it was down to the receiver?

two main ones spring to mind . Being held at gunpoint by armed hoods at a checkpoint in sarajevo telling me i was a dead man. Man loosely as i was only seventeen lol and a bit later in life getting shelled at a location so close the door and windows came off our hut. Hurt the ears that one lol. Been stabbed too but that didnt stike me as life threatening 🙂 all good fun lol

Once went rafting on the Tay with mrsmidlife and her mother. Managed somehow to get in amongst some rocks which brought the boat to a sudden halt and the mother in law fell off the back and went below the boat. After she’d been under for twenty seconds or so the guide was looking pretty worried, but he eventually got my foot off her head and she survived. Grand day out slightly spoiled.

Been stabbed too but that didnt stike me as life threatening all good fun lol

Gotta love Firestarter’s optimism! Speshly as some bods on here think the World’s about to end, if they can’t get organic sprouts or proper coffee or something! 😀

Actually, thinking about it; the aerial bloke was telling me he could supply and fit a dijical aerial for ‘only £60’… Hmmm…. 🙄

fred, i have a 10 yr old 10 element aerial, it pulls in freeview no problem, i am in a very good signal area.
a 48 element aerial in a very bad signal area will not necessarily pull in freeview.
a good aerial is a triax unix 32 wideband aerial, good for all reception areas.

I bet the skydiver on tonights news thought he was… 6000 ft fall and survived – prob on utube somewhere… he was filming another skydiver who forgot to signal him to open his chute..

The split second after the rover hit me…i throught i was a goner frankley….

you thought you were gonna die because you can’t get dijical? Sheltered life?

I have but not really in a position to say much more.

The time I ended up doing a reverse superman after getting rear ended by a blonde bimbo in a car doing 40mph in a 30 zone. That **** hurt when I hit concrete. It was a couple of days after those cyclists got killed by that car out of control on ice or something. That was all I could think of at the time. And yes, time does slow down – or at least it did for me!

I was a passenger in a car that ended upside down in a ditch after we slid off on black ice

heart went bumpity bump when the car started filling up with water and I couldnt get the door open

I rolled my Escort into a pond on a forest rally mid 80’s, went in upside down and caved the windows in, then righted itself. Only the roof and about half the door pillars showing above the water afterwards. Quite lucky I reckon.

I was on Sca Fell once, in December, with no kit and a mate who was in jeans blah blah…

Hoist by your own petard, Fred?

Ton – Rudeboy maybe needs a wideband he could have a grouped one now & one or more of the muxes are out of band
We have that with Bilsdale – group A transmitter but one of the muxes is in the B band [42]

Mind you, if he gets his TV signals from Crystal Palace, it’s all group A so the fitter is telling him porkies

I was absolutely convinced that I was going to die on Christmas Day night, but it was just a very odd reaction to the steroids I was taking for a chest infection; thy sent me a bit mental.

When I was 12 or 13 two lads held a ‘Rambo’ knife to my throat. They were just messing about, but that’s probably the closest I’ve been to an actually life-threatening situation.

Avalanched. My final thoughts before becoming unconscious were that this was it and hey-ho. I knew I could do nothing about the situation I was in so my thoughts were that of resignation – no panic. Fifteen minutes later there’s a lot of fuss and commotion and I’m back on planet earth. Unsuprisingly I’ve been a bit mellower ever since but I’ve also had kids too so no more nonsense for me.

My ski pole was sticking out of the snow. I love that ski pole and the wrist strap that I was so anal about putting on properly.

EDIT – and I love the chaps and chapesses that got me out of the shit.

I once lay in bed terrified and unable to move or alert anyone to the predicament of being certain I had meningitis. Genuinely thought I was going to die that night.

Woke up the next day with ‘flu. 🙄

Many years ago i crashed a Kawasaki GPZ750, doing 90 in a 30, hit a pot hole, big tank slapper, slid up the road, bounced up the kirb & into a wall.
That day i though my time was up, friction burns, a little internal bleeding and a valuable lesson.

Of course there was the time on the GSXR1100 on Blackstone edge, hit a sheep slap bang in the middle.

Oh and the GSXR750 on the A5 in wales, over taking a car on a blind bend, at night, in the wet, double white lines, the guy turned right. Ouch

I will never forget the feeling when it all starts to get out of shape and it becomes obvious that its gonna hurt – i don’t ride a motorbike any more – seeing my kids grow up seems so much more important.

Looking back i have been quite lucky really

Through inattention i got myself wedged, upside down, in my whitewater boat under a tree. That wasn’t nice. As i dropped into the pool i saw it and though, oooooh i don’t want to get too near that, for some odd reason as i hit the strong eddy line my mate simultaneously used the back of my boat as a bumer and turned me over, the force of the eddy and the shallow water meant i could only half roll as i went in under the tree. There wasn’t enough room for me, the boat and the tree……i managed to cut the front of my boat and with a lot of cuts and bruises i got out. But its as close as I will get without actually carking it.

Following a nice trail in Majorca, up ahead I can see a small rise in the trail, just high enough to get some air on. Pick up the pace a bit, and I’m stood up, as i lean into the bars a bit, the sandy soil moves and the semi slicks I’m using lose traction spit the front sideways, and before I know what’s going on, I’m on my arse. Get up, push up to the rise to be confronted by the end of the trail and a sheer cliff, about 100ft below, are rocks and the sea, i can see the trail branching faintly to the right to run parallel to the cliff. Had to sit down for a moment…

nickc are you saying you nearly jumped off a cliff?

coming down Walkley lane in the snow on my Yamaha. roads were clear but wet. got to just before the two pubs opposite and saw a gritter truck pulling out. he spotted me then just stopped in the middle of the road looking at me. my back wheel locked up and i honestly though about ditching the bike and aiming for between the wheels of the truck. thankfully realising his mistake he floored it and i just managed to get round the back. if he’d have (preferably) not pulled out or just kept moving when he had pulled out I’d have been clear but to just stop in the middle of the road seems stupid.

also coming back from Manchester airport over Woodhead Pass on boxing day in jeans and a leather jacket at 9 at night. roads where clear but by Christ was it cold. 20 minutes of leaning against the radiator when i got back and i still had no feeling in the front of my legs. if i’d have been able to walk up stairs i’d have been looking up the diagnosis of frost bite

Aye…

Hoist by your own petard, Fred?

Oh, totally. We never intended to actually do any climbing, but we’d driven up from Bradford, and just thought we’d climb up a little way. The whole time, we could see the car, not much more than a couple of hundred yards away.

TBH, it probbly weren’t really that dangerous, but it **** felt like it. Had we gone over the edge, we wooduv been killed to death, no mistake.

A stupid, childish and idiotic thing to do. I’ve never done anything like that before or since.

I enjoyed me mate handbraking it round every bend of Hardknott pass, on the way back, though. 1100 VW Polo, wih a Bradford Bulls ‘Bull Power’ sticker on’t back window. Nutter.

uplink – Member

Ton – Rudeboy maybe needs a wideband he could have a grouped one now & one or more of the muxes are out of band
We have that with Bilsdale – group A transmitter but one of the muxes is in the B band [42]

Mind you, if he gets his TV signals from Crystal Palace, it’s all group A so the fitter is telling him porkies

I have absolutely no idea what any of that means, but I now suspect the bloke was fishing for extra work. Can’t blame him, but he’s using deception, which is out of order. He won’t be getting any custom from me, anyway.

Arsenal fan, weren’t he?

haha! would have been a right good way to go though!!

1. Tripping and falling 136m from the Winnigen motorway bridge in Germany. I fell into a drainage channel and could see the grate at the bottom approaching at terminal velocity. I thought I would be chipped. Ended up with 3rd degree burns where I used my arms and legs to slow myself down.
2. Watching the pavement that was 40 yards away approach really quickly when I got hit from behind by a Vauxhall Viva. I wanted to die when they had to scrape all the grit out of my face without painkillers due to my head injuries.
3. Watching that really big telegraph pole approach very quickly towards my window as I skidded towards it on my Escort roof. Not even a scratch from that one.
4. When the Funival at Val d’Isere stopped and went into freefall for about 30 yds before the emergency brake kicked in.

A Renault Clio missed me by about 3ft once.
Nothing unusual I suppose except it was doing about 60.

On it’s roof.

Crashed a car over a 10ft-ish drop into a field in the dark and fog in wales, fortunately while mid-air I remembered the terrain and realised there was only a soft field coming up.

Swam out to see to rescue my kiteboard, on an outgoing 8 knot tide. Knew it was a bad idea, didn’t really consider how bad an idea it was until I turned around, could bearly make out land and spent the next 30 minutes swimming my ass off to get back to land. Never loved the feeling of sand under my toes so much before 😀

When this is all you see where there used to be land and a car park, you really do start to worry:

Went out kitesurfing in seriously high waves, overpowered on an 8m, the surfers and windsurfers came in and there was only me and my brother left out. The waves were massive a few hundred metres out – I’m used to big waves but these really did give you the willies with the shear power and size of them, it looked like “the perfect storm” when you were bobbing round in them – it was a combination of a giant swell and massive breakers. All was cracking except for when I jumped off one wave, crashed into the face of the next and then spent a good 10-15 seconds being pulled down and through the wave. Thought I was never going to come up. That was mildly worrying.

Each time I do this sort of thing I find the rest of life gets even more boring and mundane!

Whilst enjoying my honeymoon on the pacific coast of mexico, i borrowed the hotels sea kayak, and went for a quick paddle!!

After about half an hour, and about 500 metres down the coast from the launch beach, i managed to roll the thing over in sea’s that were picking up in a swell. I got back on, and after a couple of minutes rolled it again.

This went on for about 10 mins, by which point i had drifted considerably, and the sea around the point of land i was moving along was getting pretty big.

I was tired by this point, and had begun to swim the kayak in to shore. I didn’t want to let it go, as it was bright yellow, and bigger than me… so was very visible in a now VERY big swell.

After about 1 hour of swimming i was close to shore, and could see the huge rocks lining the shore were cover in coral, and sea urchins the size of porcupines.
After 3 unsuccessful attempts at landing the kayak, and myself onto the rocks in 5 foot of swell, i had cut myself to bits. I had several very deep cuts down my forearms, and one long gauge from tit to knee.

All of this would not have me immediately worrying about survival, but just about then i notice the fin sticking through the water about 100 meters away. The sight of this brought back to me the words from the tourist guide in our hotel about “Tiger shark, and Great White spotting cruises just a mile in our ocean-going R.I.B. from the hotels beach”

Oh F*uck, here i am bleeding like a leaky pipe, and i can see the water turning mild pink around me. Sharks can ‘smell’ blood from about a mile away.

Second sighting of the fin, revealed that it was getting closer, bigger, and was not just one fin! This did mean that it was not a great white, as they do their killing alone, but did mean that i wasn’t seeing things.

This was the moment i thought i was going to die!
From either drowning, bleeding to death, or being snacked upon.

I made another attempt at getting out the water with renewed enthusiasm, and this time i managed to cling onto a sharp rock just long enough for the sea to release it grip on me, and allow me to clamber up clear of the running-red water.

Feeling very relieved, and utterly exhausted i looked back into the water to see the two fins that were surrounding me leap into the air attached to two very cute looking dolphins.

I felt a bit of a cock, and limped back to the hotel. The man at reception almost passed out at the sight of so much claret, and i got a free ride to the local hospital.

Lesson: Don’t go off on your own in the Pacific ocean, doing something you have never tried before, without letting anyone know where you are going. AND without a life jacket.

dijical aerial

Ah, bless, you’ve gone all cutesy dyflepfic… Pass the sick bag please 🙄

Oh, and yes, several times.