Drowning: A peaceful way to go?

[Cacia]

Well, I have a story...

I was on this sailing trip once and the people turned out to be a bunch of drunks. No sleep...hot sun...putrid food...partying all night so I could not sleep. AND the head was a disaster...that traumatized me too.

So, after a few days I was sleep deprived and sitting on the deck at 10 am, in July waiting for the hungover snoring losers to get up and get the show on the road. I had been trapped on that boat for waht seemed like forever...I started staring at this weight belt and actually fantasizing about just putting it on and taking a trip overboard. I imagined the cool welcoming depths of the abyss and then realized that I was a bit psychotic. So...I have never contemplated suicide in my whole life but that day, I did, and it was a very strange sensation. So....I got a grip, and fetched my credit card and swam very far, to shore and crawled up on the beach and checked into the Mauna Kea resort and stayed five days.

To this day, I would not go on a liveaboard. I think drowning is a bit of a fantasy for some people...."The Big Blue" comes to mind.

 

[Allison Finch]

I have not read all of the responses to this question. I will offer my experience with near drowning.
When I was around five years old, I was playing in our swimming pool. I was under an innertube with rafts stacked on top. It formed a neat "fort". One of my sisters jumped on top pushing it into deep water and the impact stunned me as I was under the pile in the airspace.
I remember looking up at the surface as I was sinking to the bottom. I saw my arms waving and remembered a wonderfully peaceful feeling in a turquoise world. It was almost musical.
I then remember being shaken into consciousness rather roughly and feeling some anger at the interruption of my "peace".
While I don't know (or care) if other people's experiences matched mine, This is mine. I guess this is why I became a diver at a very young age and became certified in '70.
It's not that I have no fear of dying, I just don't fear drowning too much now.

 

[RoyN]

If my time comes, then I won't fight it. But I would rather die in the ocean then be dead by car accident or what not. Its best to die doing something you love .

 

[Diver0001]

If my time comes, then I won't fight it.

I sure will. I'm not giving up this life without an almighty bloody fight.

But I would rather die in the ocean then be dead by car accident or what not. Its best to die doing something you love .

Dude, dead is dead. The way you die only matters to the people who want to believe you didn't suffer.

R..

 

[BKP]

Unless you get a dark narc where you feel the walls closing in on you, night terrors behind you, and your last gasp of air is spent screaming 'cause your nitrogen addled brain is telling you the boogey man is behind you.

But on a positive note, your family gets no closure as they dont know what happend to you, no nice cerimony to say good by to a loved one and no money as the insurance agency fights them in court to avoid payment.

That would make a great Harlan Ellison short story!!

 

[Cacia]

well...some of us don't wory too much about being dead. I only worry about being paralyzed or brain damaged and being alive.

dead...is just somewhere else...heaven or reincarnated or something...I am curious. I think if I was dying, I would be like "oh...now I get to see what's on the other side". people that romantisize that probably are more likely to have a peaceful almost blissful experience..I think there is a lot written about it. Don't get me wrong...I don't want to die today, but it is an experience I look forward to on some level.

Also this "closure" concept is very personal also.

Some people need the funeral thing, or the body.

A good friend of mine told me the other day (we are both halcyon fans) that he is not DIR but won't dive solo because his wife would have no closure.

I reflected on that, and realized that I don't really care about that. I love my children, but for some reason I don't think that would haunt them. Some horrific freeway accident, or cancer, would probably get to them more.

Dying at sea, for some, is a noble, almost romantic thing.

 

[Jcsgt]

I intend to avoid it as long as possible. Too much to do and see.

 

[Diver0001]

Well, I have a story...

I was on this sailing trip once and the people turned out to be a bunch of drunks. No sleep...hot sun...putrid food...partying all night so I could not sleep. AND the head was a disaster...that traumatized me too.

So, after a few days I was sleep deprived and sitting on the deck at 10 am, in July waiting for the hungover snoring losers to get up and get the show on the road. I had been trapped on that boat for waht seemed like forever...I started staring at this weight belt and actually fantasizing about just putting it on and taking a trip overboard. I imagined the cool welcoming depths of the abyss and then realized that I was a bit psychotic. So...I have never contemplated suicide in my whole life but that day, I did, and it was a very strange sensation. So....I got a grip, and fetched my credit card and swam very far, to shore and crawled up on the beach and checked into the Mauna Kea resort and stayed five days.

To this day, I would not go on a liveaboard. I think drowning is a bit of a fantasy for some people...."The Big Blue" comes to mind.

LOL....

This is like one of those jokes were "you *know* you're getting old when hanging around teenagers makes you think about doing a Jimmy Hoffa"...

R..

 

[CIBDiving]

What a perfectly Morbid subject.
If you're really curious, look up Ron Ault at HoodSportanDive over on the olympic penisula of washington state and ask Him. When he was in the navy's experimentental diving program back in the 60's, they strapped him to a board and drownd him just to see what happened.
Yes, they brought him back afterwards, and believe it or not he volunteered for it.

Ron is great to talk to in any case, not only is he the nicest guy I ever met but he's a guy who measures his bottom time in weeks not hours.

 

[Diver0001]

I reflected on that, and realized that I don't really care about that. I love my children, but for some reason I don't think that would haunt them.

Have you asked them?

I didn't think my wife would really care how it happened either but I asked her about this some time ago and her reaction suprised me. How sure are you that your children see it like you think they do?

R..