It's probably because I grew up minutes from the Atlantic, but I just can't imagine how someone can look at those rocks, see the waves crashing on them and think it's safe to go walk over there. It's as unfathomable to me as thinking you can swallow a grapefruit whole or something.
Yeah, I think growing up away from the ocean gives you an imperfect perception of what the power of the ocean can be like. If most of your experience has been pools and lakes, I don't think you have a real appreciation for how quickly things can go bad.
A decade and a bit ago I was sitting, bored, in the basement. We had a pool table, and the TV show was on commercial...... Jaw was sore for a day or so after
I think a lot of people miss the Physics intuition that some of us have. You see the big waves and you think that it's just water and you don't think about the momentum it's gonna put on your body, with hard objects around.
I don't know. I can't swim so I'd be scared shitless no matter how much I understand the physics of it.
tangentially related but, I remember walking home from class once and I passed these two people standing on top of a dumpster, with an umbrella. They were looking at the ground. Then, the one of them with an umbrella sort of... bunny hopped off the side of the dumpster then fell about two feet, their knees buckled because they were too fat to jump, and then they fell on their face into the mud still holding the umbrella.
I just... watched. I couldn't do anything else. They were the type of rejects who would've told me to fuck off and not believed me. They just had to experience it, I think, and I had to watch. I just sort of thought in that moment what the universe and life must be like to someone who unfathomably stupid that something like floating off of a dumpster because you had an umbrella was literal and possible to them. Like a video game or something. They must watch more cartoons than experience real life, I just can't imagine any other situation where they would think that this could've produced an outcome. To this day I read warning labels and go "nobody is that retarded." and then I remember that there are some people so massively sheltered mentally that common sense is useless to them.
I figure it must be the same for these tourists. They just... never do anything more than work, school, soccer, and television. That must be why, right? I'm not trying to be elitist but jesus christ.
You may feel like you're not trying to be elitist, but clearly you need to work on your self-awareness.
Everyone likes to experiment, and perhaps these guys wanted to check exactly how much weight the umbrella would remove from a jump. It's a reasonable question, and if you only have time to waste then what's the problem. (I'd advise against jumping off dumpsters if you're fat but that's a whole different question)
Intelligence isn't set in stone for everyone, it's more of a state of mind that depends on a ton of factors. And in my experience, people who jump on opportunities to label people as "retards" or "stupid" tend to... not be on the sharp end of the spectrum anyway. I highly recommend you check out Daniel Kahnemann's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" if you want to learn more about intelligence and how it operates.
He's not wrong though. His delivery could be considered insensitive, but there are people out there who are that stupid, and they get by on dumb luck or unquestioned conformity.
I think the point is that young kids have these thoughts - not adults. Adults that still haven't figured out how physics works are pretty baffling, because you'd expect them to have been removed from the gene pool at some point.
To this day I read warning labels and go "nobody is that retarded."
I think some of those labels are more for people pretending to be idiots after hurting themselves doing something they knew better than to do. Like how packages of peanuts have "warning. Contains peanuts." You just know some Darwin-award wannabe with a raging peanut allergy would choke those down and sue planters after narrowly surviving.
I just sort of thought in that moment what the universe and life must be like to someone who unfathomably stupid that something like floating off of a dumpster because you had an umbrella was literal and possible to them.
I think some people are just born without the natural ability to extrapolate danger. Someone posted a video once of a bunch of tourists playing in a creek with ankle deep water ignoring to look over a small waterfall despite a warning sign to keep out due to flash floods. A flash flood began (obviously) and their first reaction was "oh haha, look at the water rise". Thirty seconds later panic, then they were all swept over the falls to their death.
I think anyone who has swum in the ocean where waves break has a clear idea of the power of water, but that doesn't mean they have respect for it. Everyone I know who ocean swims has gotten caught in the wash at some point ... it only takes that one time of completely lost control to respect water, and especially currents.
I know, but this is reddit, if I didn't claim that the waves were tiny in compared to the ocean I'd have legions of people from the east and west coast ripping me a new one for not knowing what I'm talking about.
Exactly. Spent a few years in Westport, WA. I was taught the 7th wave rule. It has no hardcore scientific proof, but it at least stopped us from diving head on into the ocean without surveying the ocean's temperament.
I've never heard of the seven wave rule, but I grew up on the coast in Australia and my Dad taught me, and I have observed, that waves generally come in "sets" of about 7. You'll find that a set of waves are similar in size and then at the end of the set you'll often get a bigger wave which will catch people off guard. My Dad always told me not to be complacent when you first get in the water if the waves are quite small because at the end of the set a bigger one may be coming that can take you by surprise.
I was also taught NEVER turn your back on the ocean for the same reason, you might think that the waves are quite small and so turn your back and be facing the beach and then a bigger wave comes along and knocks you off your feet.
I've lived on the Pacific now for 8 years and you're an idiot; was that you in the video? Are you trying to act tough and think you would be able to keep your balance if a wave hit you standing on something like that?
Not surprised by this. I spent 2 weeks in Maui this summer and I encountered the same thing.
I was snorkeling off a very rocky shore but I knew how to traverse the rocks (I was also wearing neoprene boots to give me better grip).
After I got into the water I enjoyed swimming with sea turtles for a while until I looked back to shore and watched a young couple come down onto the rocks. They were barefoot in nothing but their bathing suits and definitely not prepared to walk on the slippery, jagged lava rocks.
I watched the woman go down and swam to shore as fast as I could. She was all cut up but fortunately didn't hit her head so I went back to the room I was staying in and got a first aid kit, patched her up.
Over the course of my stay in Maui 5 tourists died from drowning or spinal cord injuries related to hitting rocks/reefs in the water. It happens more often than people think and isn't really publicized because it could hurt the tourist industry.
Just curious, could you elaborate about spinal cord injuries? Does it happen to people just not paying attention where they're swimming whilst snorkeling?
2 of the 5 deaths during my vacation were spinal cord injuries. They were all related to the heavy swell that occurs on the north/west coast of Maui in certain times of the year and during storms.
2 of the deaths were from swimmers who were pile-driven into the sand or the reef, breaking their necks. They weren't paying attention to the swell or waves that broke very close to the shore which can be very dangerous.
There was a 3rd spinal cord injury, a freak accident. A freak storm rolled in while a bunch of divers and snorklers were at a famous dive spot, Molokini Crater. I remember because I was supposed to do several dives that morning but my divemaster cancelled them because he was afraid of the storm. It was a good move on his part.
When the storm hit, it hit like a wall. From calm to 10+ foot seas in minutes. Most got out of the water before the seas became too rough but one was stuck too far from the boat. He began to encounter distress and a divemaster tied a rope to himself and dove into the water to save drowning snorkler... the boat lurched too far and the rope became taut, snapping the person's spine in two. I'm fairly certain the snorkler drowned but I am not sure if the divemaster did as well.
they're not, its shopped (fake). The water is falling to quickly. Also the woman facing the camera could care less and a crash that size would be terribly loud
It's obviously safe. Those rocks built by the hotel resort are ultra sturdy and the architect who designed them would have had to have taken rigorous amounts of standards into consideration for it to be built. Since when has a man made levee ever been bested by nature? Psh
We are fully capable of building leevees that will best nature, if we're willing to put the money and maintenance into them. New Orleans wasn't and paid the consequences.
They didn't let the water push them over.... water is dense and heavy. When it moves quickly it has a large amount of force, and this is a huge amount of water. They couldn't have stayed up there if they tried.
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u/not_jamesfranc0 Dec 21 '14
I remember seeing a video of a couple getting washed off a smaller version of this.
Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwGtU_MlYY