Open Water

[Big Gulp]

Okay, just got back from seeing a matinee of the movie.  Personally, I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I think this is going to be one of those movies that you either really love or really hate.

Beyond the shark spookiness (which there is in abundance), this movie leaves you with a feeling of complete emptiness.  The scenery doesn't change, it's just vast expanses of water 360 degrees around the characters and it makes you feel fucking tiny.  Far more spooky than the sharks themselves.

It reminds me of a trip to Mexico I took years ago, when I was snorkeling off of a reef that has a steep drop off.  Had a blast because the water was clear blue and I could see all the way to the reef below me, which was about 80 feet down, it felt just like flying.  Then, all of a sudden, the reef drops off, and I'm not flying any more.  I'm floating over this empty unending blue.  

I've never been scared in the water like I was at that point, and there were no critters around to freak me out, even.  I just had this shocking monkey impulse deep in my brain that told me being in water that deep was BAD BAD BAD, and I had to really fight hard to keep myself from panicking.  Freaked out, I swam back for the boat as hard as I could.

Anyway, much of this movie felt like that.  Whether you're up for something like this is up to you.  But I enjoyed the hell out of it.

[WayAbvPar]

It reminds me of a trip to Mexico I took years ago, when I was snorkeling off of a reef that has a steep drop off. Had a blast because the water was clear blue and I could see all the way to the reef below me, which was about 80 feet down, it felt just like flying. Then, all of a sudden, the reef drops off, and I'm not flying any more. I'm floating over this empty unending blue.

I had the same type of experience in Hawaii. I was snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, the vast majority of which is 3-4 feet deep (and shallower in many spots). We kept moving farther out, and eventually hit a spot where the coral gave way to a deep pool with a sandy bottom. I couldn't see the other side of this pool...suddenly brain was SURE that the water just beyond my visual range was teeming with tiger sharks, and that I needed to get my ass back in the protected coral area ASAFP.

I really want to see Open Water...I think it will scare the bejeesus out of me, but it sounds fascinating.

[HaemishM]

I'm almost positive it will scare the beejesus out of me in a good way. The trailer does a good job of conveying what the movie is about. Hell, it probably gives most of the story away, but I think this is one of those movies where the impact is about more than what happened.

[Big Gulp]

I think this is one of those movies where the impact is about more than what happened.

Yeah, I found myself lifting my feet off of the floor more than a few times, because hey, you never know when the theater shark will strike!  A great scene that goes on for minutes on end is the nighttime storm.  The screen stays black and the theatre is dark as hell, and the only time you can see is when lightning strikes, to reveal, oh, say a fin about 3 feet away from the characters.  Like I said, it goes on like this for about 3-4 minutes.

I just about crapped myself.

[Arnold]

It reminds me of a trip to Mexico I took years ago, when I was snorkeling off of a reef that has a steep drop off.  Had a blast because the water was clear blue and I could see all the way to the reef below me, which was about 80 feet down, it felt just like flying.  Then, all of a sudden, the reef drops off, and I'm not flying any more.  I'm floating over this empty unending blue.  

I've never been scared in the water like I was at that point, and there were no critters around to freak me out, even.  I just had this shocking monkey impulse deep in my brain that told me being in water that deep was BAD BAD BAD, and I had to really fight hard to keep myself from panicking.  Freaked out, I swam back for the boat as hard as I could.

The scariest time I've had in the ocean is when I was abalone diving from a boat and had to swim about 200 yards, through deep water, to get to where I would be diving.  I'd never swam in such water before and the location/condition was similar to what a friend had described to me as a breeding ground for great whites where he had grown up!  The whole time I was swimming, I had visions of a shark coming from behind and under me to take a bite, and I was not happy with that.

I'm used to abalone diving in water from 3-30', but I always enter the water from the shore.  Going from the boat tripped me out because I was immediately in deeper water than I've ever been in before in the ocean.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

The start of this thread was enough to freak me out.
I'm staying as far away from this movie as physics will allow.

[Arnold]

FUCK!

First I read this thread, and I hadn't even got word of  the news.  I planned on abalone diving somewhere around Fort Bragg last weekend, but my schedule changed and I couldn't go.

Now I read this shit!

[Hanzii]

When I went cage diving with great whites (well one great white, pickings were low that day) only a few days earlier the local paper had pictures of a smiling surfer witn a surfboard that a great white had taken a HUGE bite out of...

But diving with sharks isn't nearly as unsettling as swimming/snorkeling over dark water and letting your imagination run wild...

[Arnold]

But diving with sharks isn't nearly as unsettling as swimming/snorkeling over dark water and letting your imagination run wild...

That's what I was talking about!  Abalone diving is done with mask, fins, and a snorkel.  

A couple years back, a bunch of friends were diving, and a game warden was waiting for them at the top of the hill when they got out.  As they came out with their catch, the warden(with binoculars) said, "You guys are brave."

The group requested to know why, and the warden replied, "Look, there's a great white down there that was swimming around with you."

That was the last time my friend's dad dove.  He's been rock picking ever since the incident.

[WayAbvPar]

I seem to remember hearing that abalone divers are among those who are most likely to have an encounter (attack or not) with great whites, since abalone and great whites share a lot of the same habitat. If that is true, there isn't a chance in HELL I would ever go near such a place. Sure, the statistics show that being killed by a great white exceedingly rare, but my gut feeling is the stats also show that no one has EVER been killed by a great white on land. I like my chances on terra firma, thanks.

[Big Gulp]

If that is true, there isn't a chance in HELL I would ever go near such a place.

I'd never spearfish, period.  The thrashing and blood in the water just scream out "I am wounded prey!  Come check me out!"  I have no desire to be anywhere near that kind of bad mojo.

[Furiously]

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, chief. It was comin' back, from the island of Tinian Delady, just delivered the bomb.
The Hiroshima bomb.
Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes.
Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour.
Tiger.
Thirteen footer.
You know, you know that when you're in the water, chief?
You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail.

Well, we didn't know. `Cause our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Huh huh. They didn't even list us overdue for a week.
Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups.
You know it's... kinda like `ol squares in battle like a, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo. And the idea was, the shark would go for nearest man and then he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go away.
Sometimes he wouldn't go away.
Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin' and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in and rip you to pieces.

Y'know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand!
I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour.
On Thursday mornin' chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, bosom's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist.
Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He'd a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low.
And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up.

You know that was the time I was most frightened?
Waitin' for my turn.
I'll never put on a lifejacket again.
Eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945.
Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

[Paelos]

Away and ado to you fair spanish ladies...

[Big Gulp]

Away and ado to you fair spanish ladies...

Bone up on your Jaws, fool.  It's "Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies"....

[Paelos]

With that awful drunken talk, who could tell.

[Furiously]

Keep Chummin

[Murgos]

Because it's a nearly 200 year old chanty?  You would think you might be able to find a reference to it...

"Farewell and adieu" (Spanish Ladies) is probably one of the oldest and best known Royal Navy shanties. It has been documented in use as a homeward bound, up (English) Channel working shanty for more than 200 years (Ref: Hugill, "Shanties from the Seven Seas"; Captain Frank Shaw, "Splendour of the Seas"; Captain W.B. Whall, "Sea Songs and Shanties" etc.).

Fare-well an' a-dieu to you fair Spanish ladies,
Fare-well an' adieu to you ladies of Spain
For we've recieved orders for to sail for Old England,
An' hope very shortly to see you again
 

Chorus;
We'll rant an' we'll roar, like true British sailors,
We'll rant an' we'll rave across the salt seas,
till we strike soundings in the Channel of Old England,
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-four leagues
 

We hove our ship to, with the wind at sou'west, boys,
We hove our ship to, for to take soundings clear,
In fifty-five fathoms with a fine sandy bottom,
We filled our main tops'l, up Channel did steer.
 

The first land we made was a point called the Deadman,
Next Ramshead off Plymouth, Start, Portland and Wight,
We sailed then by Beachie, by Fairlee, and Dungyness,
Then bore stright away for the South Foreland Light.
 

Now, the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor
We clewed up our tops'ls, stuck out tacks and sheets,
We stood by our stoppers, we brailed in our spankers,
And anchored ahead of the noblest of fleets.
 

Let every man here drink up his full bumper,
Let every man here drink up his full bowl,
And let us be jolly and drown melancholy,
Drink a health to each jovial an' tru-hearted soul!

[Paelos]

How about yall all get off my dick over a one-liner...

Thanks, you now may return to whatever jobs you have.

[Furiously]

So - there I was parasailing in Mexico. I look down into the clear blue water and see a Mantaray. And I think - if the rope breaks - I'm dead.

That I went fishing and caught a dogfish. I think they are related to sharks.

Thats the extent of my shark/sharklike stories.

[Murgos]

Manta Ray's eat plankton.  Dunno if you were joking or not so I figured I would clear that up.  My step father owned a fishing boat and I spent most of my weekends and summers at sea as a teenager, I've seen any number of sharks, mostly we just cut the lines but occaisionally we would have to pull them aboard.  A 12 foot hammerhead thrashing about wildy in a 3 foot wide walkway can be fairly dangerous.

[WayAbvPar]

So - there I was parasailing in Mexico. I look down into the clear blue water and see a Mantaray. And I think - if the rope breaks - I'm dead.

Manta Ray's eat plankton. Dunno if you were joking or not so I figured I would clear that up.

He would probably die because he would sail over the nearest hill, away from the safe tourist area, and be raped and murdered by malcontent locals when he finally landed. At least he could say he say a ray before he died in agony!

[Furiously]

No - I figured a 12 year old kid would have been pretty appetizing to a mantra ray at that point. It was cool to be able to look down 500 ft and see it though.

[Murgos]

Yeah, they can get big.  30 ft from tip to tip or so.  They certainly look intiidating as hell, they are after all refered to as Devil Rays, but fortunately they're harmless.

[WayAbvPar]

They certainly look intiidating as hell, they are after all refered to as Devil Rays, but fortunately they're harmless.

Much like their namesakes in Tampa.../rimshot

[Nosartur]

Occasionally when I was on Floats in the Corps the ship would authorize swimming while the LCAC's would be out getting their flight pay.  That is kind of intimadating, to be able to swim as far down as you are able and still not see any thing below you.  Blue water swimming and blue water diving are definitely interesting practices.

[Morfiend]

Fuck me, I will never see this movie.

Not cause its bad. Because I know it will scare the shit out of me. In that, "no sleep for j00" kind of way.

I have a thing about sharks, and really deep water.

No. Just No.

[Pineapple]

 That is kind of intimadating, to be able to swim as far down as you are able and still not see any thing below you.  

And then you look down in the vast blueness, and see two huge glowing eyes several hundred feet below. They must be the size of picnic tables.

Then the gaping mouth opens, wide enough to drive a truck through.

As it swims up toward you, your last thoughts of are your grandmother making you cookies.

It would never happen of course, but just the thought of what could be down in the deep is enough to keep me on dry land. I really do not want to look down and see a gigantic form swimming below me.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

Because it's a nearly 200 year old chanty?  You would think you might be able to find a reference to it...

"Farewell and adieu" (Spanish Ladies) is probably one of the oldest and best known Royal Navy shanties. It has been documented in use as a homeward bound, up (English) Channel working shanty for more than 200 years (Ref: Hugill, "Shanties from the Seven Seas"; Captain Frank Shaw, "Splendour of the Seas"; Captain W.B. Whall, "Sea Songs and Shanties" etc.).

Fare-well an' a-dieu to you fair Spanish ladies,
Fare-well an' adieu to you ladies of Spain
For we've recieved orders for to sail for Old England,
An' hope very shortly to see you again
 

Chorus;
We'll rant an' we'll roar, like true British sailors,
We'll rant an' we'll rave across the salt seas,
till we strike soundings in the Channel of Old England,
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-four leagues
 

We hove our ship to, with the wind at sou'west, boys,
We hove our ship to, for to take soundings clear,
In fifty-five fathoms with a fine sandy bottom,
We filled our main tops'l, up Channel did steer.
 

The first land we made was a point called the Deadman,
Next Ramshead off Plymouth, Start, Portland and Wight,
We sailed then by Beachie, by Fairlee, and Dungyness,
Then bore stright away for the South Foreland Light.
 

Now, the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor
We clewed up our tops'ls, stuck out tacks and sheets,
We stood by our stoppers, we brailed in our spankers,
And anchored ahead of the noblest of fleets.
 

Let every man here drink up his full bumper,
Let every man here drink up his full bowl,
And let us be jolly and drown melancholy,
Drink a health to each jovial an' tru-hearted soul!

you're gonna need a bigger quote.

[Murgos]

Die in a shark fire.

[Hanzii]

 That is kind of intimadating, to be able to swim as far down as you are able and still not see any thing below you.  

And then you look down in the vast blueness, and see two huge glowing eyes several hundred feet below. They must be the size of picnic tables.

Then the gaping mouth opens, wide enough to drive a truck through.

As it swims up toward you, your last thoughts of are your grandmother making you cookies.

It would never happen of course, but just the thought of what could be down in the deep is enough to keep me on dry land. I really do not want to look down and see a gigantic form swimming below me.

Don't worry. It won't happen.

...the eyes are black and the colouration and speed perfectly suited to you not knowing what hit you before a large chunk of flesh is missing from your body and you're bleeding out.

Happy swimming.

[Bunk]

[quote="Arcadian Del Sol

you're gonna need a bigger quote.[/quote]

God damnit, you know hard it is to clean a Coke snort off a keyboard?

[schild]

you're gonna need a bigger quote.

God damnit, you know hard it is to clean a Coke snort off a keyboard?

Finely crushed powder is tough as hell to remove from between the keys. I suggest a vacuum.

[Paelos]

you're gonna need a bigger quote.

God damnit, you know hard it is to clean a Coke snort off a keyboard?

Finely crushed powder is tough as hell to remove from between the keys. I suggest a vacuum.

or Charlie Sheen, whichever you have on hand.

[Teleku]

FUCK!

First I read this thread, and I hadn't even got word of  the news.  I planned on abalone diving somewhere around Fort Bragg last weekend, but my schedule changed and I couldn't go.

Now I read this shit!

I didn't hear about that untill my mom called me and told me.  It kind of freaked me out because me and some friends went body surfing at that exact same beach only 4 days before the attack happened.  We where going to go out again the next day, but there where crap loads of giant jelly fish washed up all over the shore, and we figured it probably would suck to go swimming right into a bunch of them.  Now I'm really glade we didn't.

There have been a disturbing number of great white shark attacks at fort bragg over the years I have found out.......

[WayAbvPar]

There have been a disturbing number of great white shark attacks at fort bragg over the years I have found out.......

Disturbing # is any number >0, as far as I am concerned. Great whites give me the willies like few other things can.

you're gonna need a bigger quote.

POTD. Too funny.