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Fogged out and other weird situations that end your day early?


SDNAH2OSKIER
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Didn't happen to me, but the worst day-ender that I ever heard of for skiing was on the Tickfaw River in Louisiana. Heard about it when I moved down there in 2002. I guess a couple years before that, a lady was slalom skiing and apparently went OTF and tumbled into the lily pads near shore. The people in the boat heard her screaming her lungs out and by the time they got back to her she was already dead. 1100 cottonmouth bites in less than a minute.

 

In alligator country, the snakes are a much bigger concern than the 'gators would ever be. I skied on the Tangipahoa River (small tributary to Lake Pontchartrain) numerous times and it's full of gators. They generally stay well away from a boat with a motor that is running. The snakes also like to hang out where people don't, but they tend to congregate in these big piles under the surface near the cypress stumps and lily pads.

 

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They just stopped the tournament as it meandered through the slalom course (he scored 5). Gator tail isn't that good. Chewy and tastes like chicken. I think they took the opportunity to gas up the boat. This was more than a decade ago. The folks running the tournament said they often had to drive out to the jump and smack paddles on the ramp to scare off the gators (sunning themselves) before a jump event could start. I whole heatedly agree with @XR6Hurricane. The cottonmouths are scary as hell. They have little to no fear.
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@xr6hurricane the same thing happened in a public lake we skied in when I was kid. Person skied into the swarm near the shore. Those cottonmouths can be really aggressive at times. I've had to smack'em with a paddle more than once to keep it from jumping in the boat while fishing. I'm not sure what makes them swarm like that.
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I skied at a tournament outside Austin this summer where they had to stop the tournament because a herd of cows had wandered into the course. Eventually the boat crew was able to shoo most of them away and continue the tournament, however, there were still several standing in the water about midway between the 55's and the shoreline.
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All I can say is the story was not from the Internet or e-mail. It was relayed by a friend of mine who lived near that river...we used to boat there all the time and I had a couple people tell me about how every now and then the snakes congregate. Maybe it's when they are mating. I'm not from that area so I don't know but didn't care to find out. Never encountered it myself, thank God.
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I can live with 1 death a year out of 250 million humans. The article stated that water moccasins were the only poisonous aquatic snake, but two years ago folks said they saw a rattler swimming in Gordon's Pond in Cody, WY. I suppose they may have miss-identified it though. Bull snakes will swim and look a lot like a rattler.
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@jipster43, I think by "aquatic" they mean that they spend a significant amount of time in the water. Other snakes will definitely swim if necessary to get someplace. I have personally encountered a rattle snake on a lake (from inside the boat thank goodness!), so they will swim, just not often. We kept an eye on it while someone in another boat went for the ranger who took care of the snake.
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I saw a deer swimming across Bull Shoals, Missouri. Was it aquatic? Or just trying to get out of Arkansas?

 

So when the fog is that heavy, where does the "benefit if the doubt" go? San Diego gets spooky fog! Especially in October....

 

Eric

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I had to dig this tread up again. First a meth lab and now this. Last summer I was skiing and it kept happening that about the time I would get to #3 my lungs would start to burn. My ski partner and I kept wondering what the hell was burning- this explains it. I might win the prize for the most red neck ski club

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20121117/NEWS01/311170003/Water-Bowl-fined-9-000-open-burning?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|

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Damn, with all these stories about crocodiles and snakes, it is making me glad I am in Utah! @Wish, when I bought my ps this summer in Florida, we HAD to test it out in an alligator infested lake--an alligator was on the starting dock sunbathing not 10 minutes before we launched in the exact same spot. I had a great but short run. 1 buoy.....then I mysteriously fell.

 

This biggest thing that I worry about are the brain-eating amoebas. Our lake in the summer is more than 87 degrees and very shallow and every run churns up the mud all over you.

 

 

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