One time I was swimming in the ocean at Pawleys Island and a jellyfish managed to wrap itself all the way around my wrist and sting me continuously for several seconds. I can't recall anything I've experienced being more painful.
When I was around ten we were in Miami Beach. My brother and I were jumping off a small pier into storm tossed waves, and I jumped right on top of a shark. It was as afraid of me as I was of it apparently since it swam away. I swear I felt like I jumped back on the pier without touching the bottom. I had a cousin nearly drown in a lake. He was riding in the bed of a pick-up truck that ran off into over twenty feet deep water. He couldn't get the tailgate down.
I've been bit maybe a dozen times in the last 5 years, and there's plenty of mosquitos to go around. I'm not complaining.
Mosquitos are the scourge of humanity. Being in a place where you have to sleep in a net and, once dusk hits, slap the shit out of yourself as they attack in swarms, will let you know how utterly evil those things are. I got a moderate case of Dengue Fever once from mosquitoes and I wouldn't wish that shit on anyone. It also never failed that two or three would get into your net with you as you entered and buzzed in your ****ing ear all night. If you did get to sleep, chances are you might roll over, leaning against the net and wake up with a welt on your arm or leg where every mosquito in a three mile radius took their turn drawing blood. Evil, evil pieces of shit.
You obviously haven't been sitting in an area sheltered from the wind in the Avon/Buxton/Frisco/Hatteras areas of NCin the last 5 years. Those things are like Chinooks that are linked to a next generation Aegis System.
I don't have any ocean stories ... we didn't go that often. I have a lot of river stories though. We've always lived on the lake and I still live on the lake. Two of the most scary both involved skiing. I used to ski in a local lake competition (that wasn't a real big deal) so we water skied a lot in the summer. One afternoon we were coming in for the day and my dad swung me around and let me go so as to coast to our pier. As I started to lose speed and sink, I was bitten by a cotton mouth underneath my right arm. It didn't really hurt all that bad when it happened and I probably wouldn't even have known it was a snake bite if the snake hadn't swam right in front of me after it happened. I freaked out after I saw it and realized I'd been bit though. Went to the ER and figured out that it was a "dry bite" and there was no envenomation. I didn't know that was possible until then. The other one happened skiing also. After I had surfaced on the initial pull, my swim trunks were hanging halfway down my ass. I slipped my arm through the handle and started adjusting my shorts. I was looking down so I didn't realize that the boat was turning. I crossed the wake while still looking down and fell. The handle slid up to my shoulder while I was falling and pulled me under. They saw me fall but instead of stopping and waiting for me to surface, they just immediately turned around and started heading back for me ... which served to pull me through the water making it impossible to surface. I seriously thought I was going to drown. I didn't drown but I did dislocate my shoulder and tear my rotator cuff.
I don't get it, everyone around me is bellyaching about mosquitoes and I don't get bit at all, be it in the wood, a salt marsh, wherever.
I'm the same way. They just don't like me for some reason. My wife gets all welted up and is itchy for days. I can feel when I get bit, but it doesn't itch and no bumps.
I could take you guys to places where the mosquitoes block out the sun. I don't care who you are, they will bite you in the muskeg swamps of Alaska or the desert lakes of the Dominican Republic. They were unreal...
Worst mosquitoes I ever encountered were in Maine. Sum[itch bay]es will eat your faster than piranha in a stagnant pool.
Not nearly as bad as the Maine black flies. Fishing in the Allagash you are chewed to pulp, and that's with netting and sleeves/gloves.
Agreed ... worst mosquitos I've seen was when I was fly fishing in New Hampshire. It wasn't even enjoyable.
I was fishing in the back of a creek on lake Barkley. We heard what we thought was a weedeater but it got louder and louder. It was a wad of mosquitoes that blocked out the sun. They came and went in about a minute but it was awful
We had a swim call over the Mariana Trench. It's pretty cool to say I've swam in the deepest part of the ocean. The biggest thing I remember was the salinity rate. You couldn't drown if you wanted to because of it. Everyone would jump off the side of the ship and shoot up and bounce around like a cork in the water.
Better do it soon, it is not doing so well these days and the current Australian government doesn't give a ****.
