30. Macho Guy Is Lucky He Didn’t Let Him Drown
“I was a competitive swimmer for 14 years, including four years of NCAA, but I’m on the shorter side so people don’t assume I was any good.
Was at a friend’s house on a lake one summer and a macho guy challenged me to race to a buoy in the middle of the lake, to prove… something, I guess. The lake is deceptively large, about a half mile across, so I warned him that if he isn’t a strong swimmer, it could be dangerous.
He was running out of gas after about 2 minutes, so I offered to let him off the hook, but he insisted he would finish. I went to the buoy and was swimming back when I found him floundering, so I lifeguard-swam him back to the house.
His ego took a deserved hit that day.
Don’t get cocky around water, even if you think you’re a strong swimmer.
Edit: thanks a ton for the W and the votes, but I want to emphasize here how quickly this kind of thing can turn dangerous. I was a lifeguard at the time, and there was another lifeguard present, but even so, this was a dumb idea. DON’T DO DUMB STUFF IN WATER.”
