“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
IMO, if you want to swim, use the hotel pool. When you go in the ocean, you have officially entered the food chain, not as predator, but as prey. If you're in Florida, the same is true of the lakes - the frigging gators are big and they are everywhere.
The ocean does freak me out yet I find myself in it whenever in the tropics. Swimming at the beaches always feels like a bit of gamble...yet in I go. What’s weird is in my years of scuba diving I’ve been in the water with hammerhead, nurse, and reef sharks. For whatever reason it’s less freaky when you’re under the surface with gear on. I think it’s because I feel as though I’m now a 6’2” creature in the water with them. Instead of two meat sticks (legs) dangling in the water at the surface. Either way it feels much less vulnerable...except at night. Night dives in the open ocean are freaky and adrenaline filled. Anyway. Last time my girlfriend and I were in Maui we swam at few beaches. A week or so later a body of a shark attack victim was found in the area. Last time I was in the ocean, the Andean Sea off the coast of southern Thailand, I got stung pretty good on the back of my arm by a jellyfish. Hurt like a &@$% for a few hours. Then just burned a little and itched for a month. Swam two days later at the same beach. The ocean is a big, kinda scary place. Yet, I’ll go back. I always do.
Not really afraid of sharks when I go to Tampa. I've been out in boats fishing and caught tons of sharks. Babies. I have yet to see the parents.
BUT, the thing I don't like is the sting rays. Whenever I go to the beach there, they are plentiful and I'm paranoid I will step on one. They are everywhere.
Give me something to float on so I don't have to touch the sand. Please and thank you.
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
The below vid in the article was taken in 2017 from the Garden City, SC pier facing north. Our condo right on the border of Garden City and Murrells Inlet, is oceanfront and about 250' north of the pier. One of 9 units on stilts in the sand. If I was there that day and if it was at "high tide" I prob coulda reeled one of these guys in the vid from our deck.
Whilst down there in 2015 after walking our dogs my wife and I decided to take em to the beach. When we got to the sand I looked south and approx 200' on the other side/south of the pier "OMG, what's goin on"??? 4 cop cars, ambulance, 150-200 people, etc, etc. Cause of the dogs, we didn't go check it out.
The below article is what was transpiring at the time.....
MURRELLS INLET, S.C. -- Officials say a 15-year-old boy is being treated for injuries to his hand and leg after being bitten by a shark on the South Carolina coast near Myrtle Beach.
Rescuers responded to calls for emergency assistance to Murrells Inlet around 12:30 p.m., Thursday and found a 15-year-old teenager with bite marks to the leg and hand, CBS News affiliate WCBD reported.
Assistant Chief J.R. Haney of the Murrells Inlet-Garden City Fire District says the youth was bitten off Garden City Beach on Thursday and taken to a hospital. He says the bleeding was stopped and bandaged at the beach.
Captain Jerry Howerton with MIGC Fire told WCBD that the teen was in chest deep water when he was bitten. The first bite was to the teen's ankle, the second bite was on the calf and the third bite was on the boy's hand from attempting to push away whatever was biting him.
A Twitter photo taken of a 15-year-old who was found with bite marks to his hand and leg, which could possibly have come from a shark attack.
In a statement, the hospital says an emergency room physician confirmed that the injuries were shark bites. The boy was expected to be released from the emergency room later Thursday.
At least 11 people have been reported attacked by sharks while swimming on the beaches of the Carolinas this summer. Two of the victims had limbs amputated.
Murrells Inlet is about 15 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach.
3rd of all.....
Sharks are seen all the time from the pier. All the time! Swimmin, backstrokin, stealin fish being reeled in, etc, etc.
4th of all.....
Don't have a "fourth of all" but rest assured it's not gonna be a vid on youtube, a vid on the show "Shark Week, or a story in the newspaper of me or my blushing bride of 34 years thinking we could.......etc, etc.
In my best Jamaican accent, as the saying goes........ "Don't swim with thee mahn in the gray suit, mahn".
I was just there and swimming, body surfing, and boogie boarding a few weeks ago. We had a house a little more than a mile south of the pier (1.3 according to my watch and the beach run I did).
I've swam tropical waters, Atlantic waters, Pacific... heck, I swam from Alcatraz Island to shore. 99.999% of the time, the fishes don't want anything to do with you.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
I was just there and swimming, body surfing, and boogie boarding a few weeks ago. We had a house a little more than a mile south of the pier (1.3 according to my watch and the beach run I did).
I've swam tropical waters, Atlantic waters, Pacific... heck, I swam from Alcatraz Island to shore. 99.999% of the time, the fishes don't want anything to do with you.
I understand. Might even be 99.9999% of the time.
Mid summer days all you see is 25-30 surfers practicin on 6' waves for the Bonzai Pipeline. As I recall, the year South C had 3 attacks North C had 7 attacks.
Just about every year someone's ticket is pulled along the South Caro coast.
Q. Is it ever gonna be my ticket? A. Nyet. Nada. Nein. Nope. Uh-uh.
Disclaimer: Unless of course I tighten up a 23 pack and fall off the pier.
Just stay out of the Amazon if you know what's good for you ...
You can't fix stupid but you can destroy ignorance. When you destroy ignorance you remove the justifications for evil. If you want to destroy evil then educate our people. Hate is a tool of the stupid to deal with what they can't understand.
Just stay out of the Amazon if you know what's good for you ...
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
As I stated in a thread about the woods and bears:
If a shark in the ocean when I am in the ocean, I aint in the ocean no more.
Last time I was in the ocean, I was snorkeling in Cozumel with my mom and wife. A barracuda was swimming adjacent to us, I paused and pointed to my wife, she instantly freaked and it turned toward us. As it came closer she pushed toward it (yea that was fun), and then I punched my fist a couple times ( I remember reading about the at somewhere the vibrations from it would scare it), I guess it did as it took off the other way.
I still bring this up with my wife when I want to buy something I shouldn't
I went on a scuba dive once, in Cozumel. It was a beach dive, meaning we left from the beach.
I was following the instructor, with my 2 friends behind me, and 2 other people that were going to get certified, behind them. In about 40 feet of water, we came across a pile of rocks. The instructor stopped, put his hand in the rock pile, then swam on. I swam behind him, over the rock pile and suddenly saw an eel pop it's head out, right beneath me.
You know how, when scuba diving, as you breathe, or exhale, you go up a little, or down a little? Yea, that was me.
In about 50 feet of water, we saw a, literally, wall of fish. Just hanging out. It was cool.
And then, I noticed a big barracuda just hanging out. Big -as in, it seemed to be about 5 feet long. And then I realized I was wearing my gold chain, with my gold Cleveland Browns medallion on it. I was petrified it would look like a lure to the barracuda.
I did some extreme breathing right then as well.
Got out to about 60 feet of water, and the instructor motioned to me and my friends to kneel on the floor of the ocean, as he was going to take the other 2 a bit farther to 'test' them/certify them.
Kneeling there, I had trouble staying on the ocean floor. Kept wanting to float up a bit. I figured my inflatable life vest had some air in it (it's hooked up to the tank), so, I casually hit the button to completely deflate it - without looking.
Next thing I know, I'm heading to the surface like a bobber. So, I kept hitting that air relief valve. Ears popping, water coming in my mask - so I'm trying to clear the mask.......and BAM - I'm on the surface.
Bobbing on the surface of the ocean, I realized I'd been INflating the vest, not DEflating it.
So, I hit the right button. I start sinking - rapidly. Same thing: ears popping again, water coming in the mask.
Ended up landing on 1 of my friends.
Finally, settled in on the ocean floor, I looked at my air gauge - 15% left. I looked at both of my friends - they were at 50%.
There’s a skill to breathing during scuba. It’s actually something that takes quite a bit of time to get natural at. It’s something that you have to get good at to make the sport enjoyable. Otherwise you rip through tanks too fast. Shortening your, and your partner’s day. I could generally make a tank go 50 minutes at 30-40 feet. The depth that most corals grow. I have my advanced open water certification. Along with night, wreck, and deep diving credentials. I’ve been down to 128’ in the Keys. Staring up at that column of water over your head at that depth is a weird feeling. It was a beautiful Coast Guard cutter wreck. Intact. With a single tank I only had about 5 minutes of bottom time before having to head up to safety stop. About the coolest 5 minutes of my life in so much as being at that depth is about as close to being in outspace as I’ll ever get. Without gear you die. Any mistake can be your last. It’s on the edge. I haven’t dove in years. Kinda sad really. Once I moved west I lost my circle of diving friends and access to local warm freshwater diving sites such as quarries. Locally, I hear Puget Sound is amazing but it’s cold and it requires a drysuit. I’m a tall thin dude. I’d have to have one with custom made seals I’d think. Just can’t see doing it enough to make it worth the while. I prefer warm water anyway. So I stick to snorkeling when I can.
Barracuda are really freaky and intimidating. I found them far scarier than the few sharks I’ve been in the water with. They just hang out, hovering, mouth agape showing 3” long teeth, just staring towards you. And they’re fast. Lightning fast. Definitely not the time to be wearing shiny objects. At night...it’s a spooky adrenaline nightmare of sorts under the surface. I absolutely ripped through tanks faster at night.
Barracuda are really freaky and intimidating. I found them far scarier than the few sharks I’ve been in the water with. They just hang out, hovering, mouth agape showing 3” long teeth, just staring towards you. And they’re fast. Lightning fast. Definitely not the time to be wearing shiny objects. At night...it’s a spooky adrenaline nightmare of sorts under the surface. I absolutely ripped through tanks faster at night.
Heh, I was snorkeling offshore once when a small group of barracuda showed up on my left. They just swam along looking at me. Every so often, I'd make a sudden turn and swim right at them and they'd scatter, then I'd turn back parallel with the shore and continued kicking along over the reef. Swam for about 45 minutes with them like that before they got bored and moved on.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
And like I said - I felt like I had a lure on my neck. Shiny gold necklace/chain with a shine gold helmet.
For night dives you get glow sticks of various colors and tie them on your gear in a pattern. Your partner does the same. This way you can identify each other in the dark more easily. I remember my first night dive in the ocean thinking I was about to jump into the open ocean, 13 miles from shore, with glowing lures tied to me. I made my partner jump off the back of the boat first. Figured if I saw a bunch of blood rise to the surface I’d not get in. Lol We dove on an old broken up wooden shipwreck. It was really scattered making it easy to get off wreck easily. Was important to keep good compass settings to find your way back. With my big spotlight flashlight I could see about 25’. So as long as I hovered over the wreck about 15’ and looked down I could see enough to almost forget how dark it was all around me. But...every now and then I’d get the feeling I was being watched... I’d spin around and shine my light in every direction. (Jaws theme in the back of my head.) Unless there were fish to reflect the light, typically large fish like barracuda, the light did nothing...it’d just get swallowed up in the inky blackness. Then after the dive you have to find your way back to the boat. In 3-5’ seas it can be tough to pick out your boat lights as you rise and fall between swells. There can be 2 or 3 boats diving a wreck at a time. You pick ‘yours’ out, take a compass setting, go back under, then swim to what you hope is your boat. I only made 3 or 4 night dives in the ocean. It’s a weird weird place to be. Very out of place. Very vulnerable feeling. Don’t overly miss it. Night dives in freshwater can be really cool. No fear of stuff that can eat you. More relaxing for sure. It’s very outerspace feeling.
Swam with a few sharks out here. Mostly reef sharks when diving. Dived barrier reef, snorkelled the Ningaloo reef with a baby whale shark.
They do cage diving with Great Whites out at the Neptune Islands in Sth Australia. Probably do that next year maybe. Been on my bucket list a long long time.
It was tangentially related to the conversation, not so much the topic. Meaning, the speed we're traveling and why we're not thrown off the planet. Plus, it's a random educational video for a Tuesday.
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
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