I Shouldn't Be Alive

[swirlundergrounder]

Any of you see this show on the Discovery HD?

The survovors tell their stories and reenacts the scenario of people who have had near death experiences in nature.

Right now there is a show about 2 divers that become adrift in the South Pacific as they fight exhaustion, dehydration and predators.

[endymion]

Originally Posted by |-Erry

Any of you see this show on the Discovery HD?

The survovors tell their stories and reenacts the scenario of people who have had near death experiences in nature.

Right now there is a show about 2 divers that become adrift in the South Pacific as they fight exhaustion, dehydration and predators.

I'm a huge fan of that show. My father and I got lost at sea while spearfishing once when I was 14 and spent the night in the gulf stream treading water in a low-boat-traffic area where we were lucky to get spotted by a fishing boat the next day. We were saved because my dad had seen a documentary that suggested putting empty folded white trash bags in the pockets of your bouyancy compensators so that you can wave them like flags to signal a ship if you see one, because a person floating in the water is invisible. If my dad hadn't seen that documentary and stashed the trash bags in our BCs rigth after he saw it then we would not have survived. The trash bags were the only thing that the fishing boat who saved us could see when they spotted us, we ourselves were invisible floating in the ocean. A survival show from the 80s saved my life.

Another episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive is about an OC-6 crew, a six-man Hawaiian outrigger. They capsized in the ocean during a workout and not all six of them survived. My dad and I both paddle OC-6 outriggers so that one hit home also.

Another episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive that hit home was one about two black men who got lost in this area off of Florida just like my dad and I did. Their story is very different than my dad and I, because the fishing boat that spotted us rescued us immediately. The two black men were spotted by three different boats becase they were in a much higher-traffic area near Miami (were were 40 miles east of Sebastian Inlet, in seas where there are virtually no boats). The first two boats approached, saw that it was two black men floating in the water, and then turned around and left them to die. Two separate incidents, same thing. I think one of the men drowned before a third boat finally saved the survivor.

Before seeing that espisode it had never occurred to me that somebody might see us but then not rescue us. A white person can just never understand what it's like to be black, because that shocked me.

[coach]

You should submit your stories, man.

[endymion]

Originally Posted by coach

You should submit your stories, man.

My wife always says that when we watch that show, which we do for catharsis on Friday nights. No matter how shitty your week went, that show will make you feel better about it.

I never realized how close we were to dying when we got lost at sea until I moved to Miami. Now that I kayak around here I see how crowded it is here with boat traffic and how the sea 40 miles off of Sebastian Inlet is like a ghost town. We were very lucky that we went diving and lost our boat on a Saturday, and an early Sunday fishing trip found us. If we had gotten lost on Saturday afternoon then we would have been drifting in the ocean all Monday, all Tuesday, all Wednesday.... until we died.

The boat that saved my life was called the "Nitty Gritty" and I remember every detail about it and every person on it. We spent 19 hours treading water. We're also very lucky that Americans overfished the tiger and bull shark population in the area down to near zero in the 1920s or else we would have had more to worry about than drowning.

I also never realized then how what we went through was NOTHING compared to the plight of two black men treading water for the same amount of time in the same area of the ocean. It absolutely never once occurred to us that a boat might see us, approach us, and then turn around and leave us to die. When I saw that episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive it made me cry. It's one of those things that makes you realize that black people are speaking truth when they tell white people that a white person just can never understand what it's like to be black. TWO DIFFERENT BOATS saw them, approached, realized they were black, turned around and left them to die.

[MIRZA]

Originally Posted by techjunkie

[quote author=coach link=board=6;threadid=39549;start=0#msg442356 date=1178558759]
You should submit your stories, man.

My wife always says that when we watch that show, which we do for catharsis on Friday nights. No matter how shitty your week went, that show will make you feel better about it.

I never realized how close we were to dying when we got lost at sea until I moved to Miami. Now that I kayak around here I see how crowded it is here with boat traffic and how the sea 40 miles off of Sebastian Inlet is like a ghost town. We were very lucky that we went diving and lost our boat on a Saturday, and an early Sunday fishing trip found us. If we had gotten lost on Saturday afternoon then we would have been drifting in the ocean all Monday, all Tuesday, all Wednesday.... until we died.

The boat that saved my life was called the "Nitty Gritty" and I remember every detail about it and every person on it. We spent 19 hours treading water. We're also very lucky that Americans overfished the tiger and bull shark population in the area down to near zero in the 1920s or else we would have had more to worry about than drowning.

I also never realized then how what we went through was NOTHING compared to the plight of two black men treading water for the same amount of time in the same area of the ocean. It absolutely never once occurred to us that a boat might see us, approach us, and then turn around and leave us to die. When I saw that episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive it made me cry. It's one of those things that makes you realize that black people are speaking truth when they tell white people that a white person just can never understand what it's like to be black. TWO DIFFERENT BOATS saw them, approached, realized they were black, turned around and left them to die.
[/quote]

I saw that episode. What a horrible story for those two men. The man that survived believed that the boats that passed them by thought they where Haitian refugees. I don't know how those people could leave them to die like that. The one man that died had heart problems. If they got picked up by either of the first two boats he could have gotten the proper treatment and most likely still be alive.

[endymion]

Yeah, and the way that the survivor described the story so matter-of-factly, like he was barely even surprised that they were doomed to death because of the color of their skin. It struck me that he almost expected that might happen.

When I was treading water in the same spot in the same survival situation, it NEVER EVER occurred to me that something like that might happen if somebody did spot us. EVER. The mere idea that it could happen still shocks me. How can you see somebody floating in the ocean from your powerful and expensive motor boat and then just turn around and leave them to die? Even if they were Haitian? I never would have even imagined something like that until I saw their story on the show.

I remember the guy talking about how they kept yelling "WE'RE AMERICANS!!! WE'RE AMERICANS!! PLEASE HELP US!!!" And it didn't help because they were black Americans. Those fishermen would have picked up my dad and I but they would have left those men to die. Hell my dad and I both had second-degree sunburns by the time the Nitty Gritty found us, it's a good thing they weren't phobic about Cubans, they might have seen our brown skin and turned around.

That made me realize how different the black experience really is.

[swirlundergrounder]

Originally Posted by techjunkie

[quote author=|-Erry J^c!n-|0 link=board=6;threadid=39549;start=0#msg442261 date=1178505051]
Any of you see this show on the Discovery HD?

The survovors tell their stories and reenacts the scenario of people who have had near death experiences in nature.

Right now there is a show about 2 divers that become adrift in the South Pacific as they fight exhaustion, dehydration and predators.

I'm a huge fan of that show. My father and I got lost at sea while spearfishing once when I was 14 and spent the night in the gulf stream treading water in a low-boat-traffic area where we were lucky to get spotted by a fishing boat the next day. We were saved because my dad had seen a documentary that suggested putting empty folded white trash bags in the pockets of your bouyancy compensators so that you can wave them like flags to signal a ship if you see one, because a person floating in the water is invisible. If my dad hadn't seen that documentary and stashed the trash bags in our BCs rigth after he saw it then we would not have survived. The trash bags were the only thing that the fishing boat who saved us could see when they spotted us, we ourselves were invisible floating in the ocean. A survival show from the 80s saved my life.

Another episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive is about an OC-6 crew, a six-man Hawaiian outrigger. They capsized in the ocean during a workout and not all six of them survived. My dad and I both paddle OC-6 outriggers so that one hit home also.

Another episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive that hit home was one about two black men who got lost in this area off of Florida just like my dad and I did. Their story is very different than my dad and I, because the fishing boat that spotted us rescued us immediately. The two black men were spotted by three different boats becase they were in a much higher-traffic area near Miami (were were 40 miles east of Sebastian Inlet, in seas where there are virtually no boats). The first two boats approached, saw that it was two black men floating in the water, and then turned around and left them to die. Two separate incidents, same thing. I think one of the men drowned before a third boat finally saved the survivor.

Before seeing that espisode it had never occurred to me that somebody might see us but then not rescue us. A white person can just never understand what it's like to be black, because that shocked me.
[/quote]You should submit your story to one of the companies that make trash bags...

You can make a killing!

[web_norah]

that's a great show, lately Discovery has amped up their programming, most of which airs overseas, thankfully...and i am a very happy camper!

[endymion]

Originally Posted by web_norah

that's a great show, lately Discovery has amped up their programming, most of which airs overseas, thankfully...and i am a very happy camper!

The guys who ride surfski kayaks near False Bay in South Africa also watch all of the same documentaries that we do. If you watch a lot of Discovery and National Geographic Channel then you know that False Bay is where Seal Island is located, where great white sharks do breach attacks on seals. When those guys capsize and go swimming they always talk about how uncool it is to tread water in that area. The Shark Week documentaries are always in the backs of their heads. "The only thing that kept preying on his mind was the recent documentary he'd watched on TV about Great White Sharks in False Bay..."

Happened again recently. Sometimes they'll hit a ski but usually not:

[swirlundergrounder]

Originally Posted by web_norah

that's a great show, lately Discovery has amped up their programming, most of which airs overseas, thankfully...and i am a very happy camper!

It's my fav channel to watch in HD..