StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Men have suicidal tendencies. Our lower life expectancy (compared to women) is proof of that. So, when did you willingfuly put your life at risk, but still lived to remember it (and, hopefully, learn something) ?

I recall two incidents which made me think. The first one was that time, three years ago, when I decided to go downhilling with minimal protection. I was doing 78 km/h (the fastest I had ever been offroad, on a bike). At these speeds, the thinking is very limited. Suddenly, I became aware of an artificial water channel going across the trail. No time to do anything but prepare for the chock. The suspension violently reached the end of its course and made a loud bang. I was projected to the front but managed to keep my equilibrium. Later, when I finally dismounted, I realized my front wheel was a wheel no more. I kneeled and kissed the ground.

Maybe I'll tell the second one later.

I was running very fast, and I slammed into a telephone pole, and my head was split open and I needed an obscene number of stitches.

I've posted a few of mine in the "stupid things you've done" thread.

But one really stupid one was very similar to yours Olrik, back in the day when I mountain biked a lot I was downhilling, though probably at only about 55km/h or so. And decided to take a different route to normal down a hill. At this point I realised that my new route was
a) steep... very very steep,
b) terraced (so I had a 1m drop-off every 2-3m, anyone who rides a bike, or even knows the dimesions of one can tell you how bad that is),
c) grass for the most part (thats the good part) but the terraces were made of blue-stone aka dolerite and there were a few asphalt paths that crossed the hill

and then, the best bit...

d) I hit the last terrace (remarkably still upright with a marginally intact bike) and realise - FUCK! Just past the next terraced drop off is 4m of grass, then a 3m drop-off onto a 4 lane high-way.

At this point I kick out of my toe-clips and bail. It hurt. But less than being hit by a semi-trailer.

I havent done much....my main hobby for years has been weapons combat, but when sparring (even with steel) the risk is inversely proportional to your skill.....the closest to a risky occasion that comes to mind was once with my old sparring partner owen.
Our group (a martial arts group rather than re-enactment) had been asked to put a show on for the premiere of "A Knights Tale" here. Most of the people created coreographed routines to use for the show, but Owen and I instead....improvised. He was using a heavy two handed deagesa variant and I was using a slightly over length bastard sword. We fought for about 3 minutes (which if you know anything about real weapons combat is a hell of a long time) at one point I ended up having to reverse my grip and hold the blade, using the quillons of the sword to block his attacks.
The audience were suitably impressed and doing it was a hell of a rush.

Alright one time at a camp (A while back I think) we had a thunder storm and decided to run under a metal plated open air roof to get to another building. And smart beings that we were we decided to wait there as someone went back to get something they had forgotten. And so while waiting there two people were just about to lean on the pillars holding up the roof, and lightning struck. WE all ran for our lives, and we were all safe.

I'v never done anything like that yet. Score one for sedentary lifestyles!

something like the mountain bikers up there just in the snow.
i was 16 or 17 and i took part in a snowboard jump contest (nothing big). the guy who started before me went towards the ramp with enormous speed, but it could have been some more, made a pretty good jump and got a good load of points. while he was still going towards the ramp i heard a group of people talking how cool that guy was because he had taken the ramp with that much speed. i had to prove them that i could do better and was more man than him went down even faster, over the ramp, suddently i was flying with my board up in the air and my head pointed towards the ground. i remember thinking the famous last words "ok, that´s going to be it" and then i landed hard in the wet packed snow. i couldnt breath for a while but then breathng went back to normal and soon a helicopter arrived to take me to the next hospital. i got away with a broken colar bone and an interesting flight in a copter.

Jumping off the first floor and sliding down a flag pole. Sober. Not much risk involved except maybe a sprain or two.

All right, until now the Darwin Award goes to salm, for his testosterone-filled, helicopter-rescued, jump to Disaster. That must have hurt.

In yet another act of mountain biking stupidity, I fell off a teeter-totter when the damn thing didn't tip in time. This was an absolutely huge teeter-totter than a bunch of us had built on our trail, and the end of it was about 8' (2.4m) above the ground. Because of it's size and mass, it tips real slow. Anyways, I'd successfully ridden it a few times and it's always scared the shit out of me, but this time was different. This time I got to the end of the teeter-totter and it wasn't tipping, so I'm clipped in on my bike trying to balance on a 1' wide board about 8' in the air. I was losing my balance and knew that if I fell I was toast, so I hopped my bike sideways off the thing and did the hardest landing ever. I managed to land OK but the impact was enough to sprain my ankles and wrists. My bike got off undamaged.

On my mountain bike vacation last summer I got away with my life. I was riding at Monte-Sainte-Anne in Quebec where they hold the world cup downhill races. I was doing my last downhill ride of the day when it started to rain, and the trail I was riding on was nothing but rocks. If I was smart I would've taken the service road down the mountain, but obviously I didn't. So here I am riding downhill in the rain on wet rocks at 50-60 km/h wearing shorts, a shortsleeve jersey, helmet, and gloves. About halfway down the mountain my bike skidded out and I ended up sliding along the rocks on my belly for a good 10m or so. I should've been dead, but the rocks were just slippery and smooth enough that they didn't tear my clothes and by some fluke I got out of it almost unscratched.

BTW, how are your XT disc brakes working Colonel Olrik?

I stay away from risky stuff, though I did get a few scrapes and bruises. Once, I was riding a bike down a hill, and I flew off, and hit a car, setting the alarm off. Another time, I fell off some rocks, and broke my arm. That's about it.

There used to be an abandon steel mill near my high school. Several times I actually climbed into one of the smoke stacks. Pretty toxic environment to be in. Plus there were a few times when I was running through the complex and almost tripped and killed myself. I never actually got hurt aside from bumps, bruises, and scrapes. But the near second story fall onto a pile of bricks would have done me in for sure.

Well, I guess I won't be alone here since I also had a bike related mishap. I was visiting my relatives in Nova Scotia and I was out on a ride with some friends on a borrowed bike. I was so happy to see everyone again that I didn't notice that the brakes weren't working too well, and that was to be my undoing. We were riding on some backroads along the coast when we came to a big hill, and at the bottom the road takes a sharp turn. I was flying down the hill and went to grab the brakes before the turn and quickly realized I wasn't going to slow down in time. I tried to lean the bike through the turn but I somehow ended up flying through the air and landing in a pile of rocks! Ouch! I ended up with a bunch of bruises and couldn't walk too well for a few days, but it could've been way worse.

You know, this topic reminds me of the Sluggheads.com video where the guy gets his buddy to zap him in the nuts with a 250,000 volt stungun. Some guy was actually dumb enough to get his buddy to zap him in the funbags with a freakin' stungun! Hopefully his sperm got sterilized and he won't be having any kids.

Hmm, How about my 40 MPH Cornering attempt in the Dodge Aries? You know with the 13" tires and the suspsesion of a 1920's schoolbus

Needless to say the two complete revoultions where increably fun

Going down Newberry Hill road (20+ degree slope) on a mountain bike in the highest gear, peddling like crazy, I got it up to 94mph at one point and coasted a good share of the way thru town (until I had to stop for some cars)


Opening up the Banshee in the neighborhood, at one point I had it up over 70mph, and the straightaway is only like 1/4 mile at most... Hitting the curve was the fun part... No rollcage (wouldn't want one, they look ugly and make the 'kart topheavy), and at full power, the curve is almost 90 degrees. To make it worse, I did this not once, but about 6 times in total.

Going "snow-karting" after it froze outside was also fun, full power into a 360 (deliberate, God I love physics and knowing how to judge inertia) needless to say I was being a total nut, this was also how I found out the headgasket on the engine was shot...

Hanging out with my friends.

While I'm perfectly sane and rarely break the laws that will accually get you busted, but, I've lost count of the things my friends have done that I could easily be charged for being an accesory too. Vandalism with fireworks I bought(New Years Night) is the most recent I can think of.

Ofcourse there was the time I first met about half the people I hang out at my high shool. See, my school has 5000 students, and the campus's are devided into Freshman-Sophomore and Junior-Senior, and some of the classes are only on the Senior Campus. So this one kid Brent would eat breakfast at the grey with us, and then walk over to the Red Campus for class. Well, we'd walk with him to about the end of the parking lot. Now their is a creek inbetween the two campus', and often kids will go there and smoke out(I know a couple that have) So we were walking there, and I was so fucking glad no one had anything on them, cause he thought we were all going over there to smoke out. Although one of my friends, Crackhead, had a lighter on him, he was able to hide it. I think I probly could of gotten away if one of the kids did have drugs on them, but I pissed of the Officer, he was searching us, making us empty out backpacks, pockets, and socks, and I slipped up and giggled. He walked right up into my face and said "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM, SON?"

"Uhhhh, no."

"LOOK AT MY SHIRT SON."

*I look down*

"Uhh, Officer Rock"

"NO, LOOK AT THAT, THAT SAYS LUITENANT ROCK, YOU GET THAT SON?"

Ofcourse, there were worse, almost got a 300 dollar citation once, all that fun stuff.

Riding a bike. Going down a road about 45 degrees... I was going down, full speed, then a car poped out of nowhere. I slammed my brakes, and slid right into the curb and smashed into the pole. Suprisingly, nothing more than a scratched knee.

Reading the bit about fireworks I remember now years ago messing about with model rocket engines with some friends.

As the tech minded one of the group I built a some launching equipment and an electronic launcher. We went to a railway cleaning yard behind my house to test them out. There were three of us there, my friends Mick and Gavin and me.....Mick and I went around the platforms to collect the glass Irn-Bru bottles the cleaners had taken off the trains (they have a 20p deposit on them) and left the bits and pieces with Gavin.

Gavin wasnt too bright at this point...as mick and I clambered about the platforms of the cleaning depot Gavin got bored. He decided to see what would happen if he sparked two of the wires together.

This launched one of the rocket engines through amongst the platforms at roughly testicle height....it passed within 10 feet of me to my left.

Mick and I let out a cry of "GAVIN!!!!" and then spent about 20 minutes doing nothing but shouting at him. We then went back to the original plan of firing the rockets at the fire escape door on the roof of a nearby council building (who can really resist a big red government owned target??). We did this for almost two hours till we were onto our last rocket engine...I was busily wiring the thing up when gavin said
"Look there's some folk out for a walk"
I was busy and not paying much attention....then mick went
"ohfuckohfuckohfuck"
It was at that point a hand landed on my shoulder....
I looked up, there were two uniformed police officers....Gavins 'people out for a walk'....they asked what we were doing....we admitted we were shooting rockets....they suggested we stop doing it on railway property and told us to get going....they mentioned they were there because of the rocket gavin had set off....it had gone through the fence of someone on the far side of the railway and nearly toasted thier dog....

Those were the days.....

aerius wrote: So here I am riding downhill in the rain on wet rocks at 50-60 km/h wearing shorts, a shortsleeve jersey, helmet, and gloves. About halfway down the mountain my bike skidded out and I ended up sliding along the rocks on my belly for a good 10m or so. I should've been dead, but the rocks were just slippery and smooth enough that they didn't tear my clothes and by some fluke I got out of it almost unscratched.

Bullocks, your Darwin is bigger than mine

<Goes out to find the biggest wet, steep, rocky montain trail to make a last downhill ride>

I want to go down in a blaze of glory too, damn it!

BTW, how are your XT disc brakes working Colonel Olrik?

They're wonderful! Red and shiny, and I also like the looks of the new XT cubes. I haven't rided much yet, only two short rides in the rain, but they seem to be getting tuned. This weekend I'm planning to give them their two days first heavy abuse, provided that the weather forecasts of a glaciar storm for Portugal don't affect my region that much.

"The circuits off right :: grab plug wire ::" Something I've done all to often. I also fish toast out of the toast with an all metal spoon when I eat toast early in the morning, you can see where that leads to. Hmm, consumed a number of different automotive fluids by accident (gas, old 90W gear oil, new 90W gear oil, old 10W30, new 10W30, brake fluid, brake parts cleaners, carburator cleaner). I'm pretty sure I'm going to set the low end of the male life expectancy curve... and all thats just stuff I do regularly (no, I don't want to talk about my "Hey, look what I can do!" experiences, or just male moments of stupidity)

Hmm...
One time I climbed up onto my house when I was a baby via a ladder.
One time I drove a pick-up when I was a baby into my garage, ( and my Dad).
Well, who says only men take risks.
Babies do too.

I was going home with several friends at 2 or 3 am and we were all drunk. We had to cross a bridge and someone came up with the idea to balance outside of the railing on the edge (without using the hands of course) which was around 15 cm wide, just enough for one foot.

Well now this bridge is approximately 20 meters high, crossing a railway and a river. If there had just be a low breeze that night (or I could just as easily simply have sliped out) I'd have ended up either on the rails with my neck broken or in the river were I would have possibly drowned considering how drunk I was. I doubt that I'd have been able to grab the railing in time.
If I think of that today I can't believe how stupid I was.

My friends and I spent our teenage years around a lot of fireworks. One of our favorite activities was to light some bottle rockets, toss them spinning into the air, and see if any of us got hit.

I've gotten away cheap so many times it's scary. When I think about it I should not be alive at all right now, and I can think of at least 20 incidents off the top of my head that should've killed me. Like the time I stuck both ends of an paperclip I unbent into an electrical outlet, or the time I stuck a screwdriver into my computer's power supply to get the fan going, or when I was drunk and hitting on this 300lb guy's GF. There was also the homemade explosives incident, the time my future GF caught me making out with her kid sister, the time I was bouncing on a trampoline while drunk and high on drugs, and there's many more. Thankfully I've settled down these days since I know my luck is running out.