Almost died yesterday, came very very close...

[lapince]

Hey everyone, had an almost near death experience yesterday, in a beach in Phuket where we have been swimming every day for the last 10 days, we almost drowned with my son, he is 8, knows how to swim but not great, and was too far from the shore, in a beach where there are waves and big currents, my wife had told him to come back but he stayed around 1m80 depth, she came to get me to go get him, I go and 5 meters from him waves start rolling like crazy, maybe one every 6-8 seconds, pulling us away from the shore, I caught him but he panicked and was hanging on to my neck pushing me under water, every time I had to take off his hands from my neck to get up for air, holding his arm for him not to be separated from me, and barely took one small breath and another wave was hitting, us rolling, me holding him, and again him keeping me under water, that lasted what seemed an eternity, but might have been 5-7 minutes, 2-3 more minutes I was done for, had it not been my son I would have gotten rid of him, when lifeguards came and sent us a floating device, we attached to it and a chinese man started to grab me and also pulled me under water, he also had been caught in the current and waves, I got rid of him, attached him to the floating thing, the lifeguard brought them back, I did half of the way to shore alone when another lifeguard gave me his hand and at 2 they helped me get back, I was already walking at this point, but I was out of breath and with 0 energy. I gave the lifeguards a nice reward, they didn't want to accept but I insisted.

Had there been no lifeguards I don't think I would be writing this today, alone I would have been fine, I swam in serious conditions before, did surfing in Hawaii, but when you have someone panicking and holding on to you, basically keeping you under water, whole different story.

Crap it was scary as hell, without my son no problem, I swim there every day since we got here, no problem, but with him it changed totally, I understand why when someone is drowning it's very dangerous to help if you have no rope or floating device, the person panicks, holds on to you and makes you go under water, my son is only 30kilos, I can imagine a grown strong person doing the same thing.

Wow this is really my year, almost died of huge pneumonia and lung failure during Baselworld, and now this... As a motorcycle driver I almost died 100 times, but it's not the sale thing, you avoid at the last moment a car or truck, it lasts 1 millisecond and you realize it was hot after the fact, this was very different and the most scary thing that happened to me in 46 years.

So be careful at the sea, I know many people drown every year around the world, just never thought it could be me one day as I am a rather good swimmer, know not to go against the tide when it pulls you out to sea, and all that crap, but when your kid's life is at stake.
Keep your vacations happy and safe don't do stupid things and more important don't let your kids do them and put you in this kind of situation, we told him not to go deeper than breast level, but he didn't listen and put us both at risk.

Happy and safe holidays to you all



Tried to put photos to show where this happened, you see the waves and all, but it tells me TRF can't resize them...