This was the closest I came to death and my friends were unaware of it till I told them later. An hour later the floating lifeguards came by calling people out of the water because of the wave conditions. In previous years we have swam out miles together as if it were a stroll. I had lost the fear of drowning I learned as a child and made a serious mistake.
Glad you made it - so you could be here with us. Swimming with large waves is like trying to swim upstream - harder than it looks. And unlike an undertow, there's nothing "smart" you could have done - other than what you did. Again, glad you made it, sickoflibs and thanks for sharing.
My closest was years ago when I almost froze to death. I was working outside for a few hours with water - 20 below zero (not "feels like/wind chill" stuff. but the real temp) - and my brain shut down from the cold and wet. I was a half mile from home - and am lucky I made it.
I felt giddy, happy, mildly drunk, and stupid. If I could pick a way to die - that would be it.
I literally almost drowned as a kid so I know what they are talking about.
And then in 1993 I did something really stupid. I had a sail boat out in the Bay of San Francisco at end of March and there is one other person on the boat (good thing he could sail).
Anyway we were running downwind in about 22 knots of wind so you have some good wave action (swells with smaller waves on them) and I had the motor out of the well because I wanted to see how fast the boat would go.
Well I was dragging the main sail over to the other side to run ‘wing and wing’ and when the wind caught it it threw me off the boat into the ice cold water and I had no life preserver on. The water is so cold that if you are not used to it that you will gasp for air, and I went down about 10-15 feet. It took everything I had not to gasp and when I came back up for that first breath of air there are those waves slapping me in the face.
I was out in the water for 7 minutes and my friend had to make 2 passes to get a life preserver to me and one pass to get me in the boat (which happened very quick after got the preserver to me) getting on was very difficult because I was exhausted and he could not get the boat to stop because of the high wind so I was being drug along the side of it, but we got me in.
I lost interest in sailing for awhile and sold the boat that autumn. I did still go down to the marina and hang out on the boat while I still had it though ;)
The story is legendary at my workplace out there and they still talk about it even though I left the Bay area in 1997.