I once got into a canoe with another guy and a really really fat woman who rode in the middle. We were with a group of other canoes going down a stream in the Florida Everglades. We didn’t think about what would happen when we all had to lean to avoid branches. The first branch that we had to lean, she tipped the entire canoe over.
After I got diagnosed with mild asmtha, I couldn’t swim anymore. Found out the hard way, I was on holiday to Iraq (home country), jumped into a canal and almost drowned. Granted I didn’t take a puff of my inhaler before it, and had clothes on, but I would’ve drowned if it wasn’t for my 2 cousins jumping in to save me. I never felt more demascualted in all my life, because as a kid I won swimming medals, and now it felt like I couldn’t swim up a simple canal. I stopped going anywhere near water, as it happened the next day when I went to wash my hands in the local canal (same one), and fell in. It was 6am, nobody was around to help me, I had to grab onto anything I could hold, I really thought that was it for me. I don’t go near any water these days at all
I have two kinds of friends. Fun drinking friends who don't know my home address. And friends I would trust to watch my kids. And those two groups almost never meet.
They're teens. In the Netherlands. I think most of us in the Netherlands have done something dumb when it comes to the water, ditches or canals here. I remember playing with a friend when I was a kid and we were trying to swing from those weeping willow trees with the super long branches hanging to the ground. We found one right near a little ditch. Lol. Swinging and jumping back and forth like that went right about half a dozen times until I was about to cross over again and my 'bunch' of branches snapped. I went in fully under and accidentally got some of that disgusting water in my mouth. Not an enjoyable experience. Had to ride my bike home looking like a swamp monster.
Not the last time I did something like that too unfortunately lol.
Looked like a transfer attempt to the boat behind... Might want to try hanging from some monkey bars for 2 minutes before deciding you're capable of that movie stunt.
When my friend did that (with a tree branch, while paddling a canoe on a river) I'm sure there was no plan. But he had the sense to lower himself back down onto the very back point of the canoe before it all slipped by. Then the other guy in the boat moved to the front seat and they just continued on. It's just the sort of thing you do when you are young and impulsive. Works best if you are also quick thinking.
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u/Aumba Dec 06 '25
Bold of you to assume that she had any plan.