I was not aware of the risks involved with hang-gliding. It was something I have always wanted to try despite having doubts about my safety.
So when I was in Rio de Janeiro, I took the leap and soared over Copacabana Beach and felt all my petty troubles disappear as I became part of the atmosphere.
The next day, I heard the risk of falling to your death is higher than skydiving.
A month later I jumped out of a plane in St. Petersburg, Florida. The adrenaline rush was extraordinary, but I will never do it again. I felt like I cheated death when I landed safely back on terra firma.
Curious about the crazy things strangers on the internet have done, Redditor GiiTheMetalhead asked:
"What was your 'That was fun, let's never do that again' moment?"
What Jim Morrison Did
"One of my best friends jumped out of a moving car going about 30 mph. When we went back for him and asked WTH, he said he read that Jim Morrison used to do that and he wanted to see what it was like. We asked him what it was like and he said 'well, I'm not going to do it again.'"
Wanderlust
"Being lost at night in a new city. Honestly surprised why I wasn't mugged."
Too Much Drinking
"Getting wasted. Everytime I wake up hungover I tell myself I'll never do it again, it rarely lasts more than a few months..."
"one Halloween weekend, six bars, four house parties, three liquor runs, walked everywhere because we were responsible, in no condition to drive, and this was long before Uber."
Cigarettes
"I tried cigarettes for the first time after my mom admitted to trying cigarettes in her youth once despite hating that my dad smoked for a while (stopped when I became a possibility) and hating that my grandpa smoked."
"I was that kind of sh*t mood where if it was going to hook me, it woulda hooked me I think, but I took a breath, thought it was absolutely disgusting, and handed it back to my friend and cried instead lmao."
Bye, Truck
"Rolling my truck! It was surreal. I'm glad I got to experience that and come out unharmed."
"I'd started spinning on an icy road and couldn't correct it. There were no other cars around and I wasn't going very fast so I hoped I would come to a stop eventually. It turned sideways towards a field, okay, not a big deal, I'll end up in a field. It turned the other way and all I could see was a telephone pole. Before I could even think, 'I'm hitting this pole' my airbag hit me and everything went dark.
I felt the truck turn over and junk from my cab start rattling around. 'I'm rolling, I didn't hit that tree..' It seemed like I was rolling forever. it came to a stop, I pushed the airbag off of me and checked my face for pain. I unbuckled and stood up, and crawled out the smashed passenger window and crouched there until the smoke cleared. I climbed back in to get my phone and to turn off the radio, it was blaring CCR still. The pole I was supposed to hit had paint and grass on it, I came that close. nosing into the ditch overturned me. My tires grazed the pole. This happened 100m from my house. So frustrating, so close! I miss my truck but holy sh*t that was cool."
Red Light District
"When I was young growing up in South East Asia, my parents would take me everywhere with them while travelling overseas. On most of these trips I would get some independent exploring time in relatively safe zones close to the hotels we were staying at."
"One time we were in Pattaya, Thailand (think Red Light district/Vegas of Thailand) and while they were at an adult show (because it's what you do when in Pattaya), they gave me permission to go exploring again.
I bought myself some street snacks and started walking down some random fun looking partying street. The further I went, the more 'adult' the entertainment got until I reached a bar where the girls were dancing on poles and stripping at the front entrance of the bars, essentially out on the street. I turned around, spending the rest of the night locked in the hotel room."
One Flashlight In The Desert
"Got lost in the desert with a buddy, and one flashlight between the both of us. We realized we were going around in circles when we noticed the same tree branch, but couldn't figure out where we parked the truck. Moon didn't give off much light, pitch black aside from our wimpy flashlight. Miraculously found the truck really late in the middle of the night."
Trying To Fit In
"Trying to fit my entire body through the columns of the stair rail. I got stuck around the waist while home alone and ended up being like that for a couple hours like an idiot."
"Another good one was when someone bet me that I couldn't fit into a locker. I did and they proceeded to slam it shut and I was stuck for 30 minutes before someone let me out."
"Moral of the stories, don't try to fit into small spaces."
Trampoline Mattress
"I like jumping into my bed. One day i jumped feet first causing my big toe to dislocate i spent a panicked minute snapping it back into place. The adrenaline was already pumping so i didn't feel anything. After that day i walked into bed like a normal human."
Round And Round We Go
"I was put in a zorb ball with a friend on mine in the army, it was partly filled with water, then we were rolled down a gradual hill. You start off standing up and sort of hamster balling it, but inevitably, you lose your footing and then for the next 3 minutes you're stuck inside a human washing machine."
"I didn't stop laughing the whole way down, but I probably wouldn't do it again."
Shadowed
I was a UK student who moved to America for a year to work/study and who couldn't afford a car so got a bicycle. I thought I'd explore the town where I lived so I got on my trusty bike and off I went. Having no idea where I was I thought I would keep cycling until I'd done a biggish circle and end up where I started. It started to go wrong when, I as a 20-year-old white English man, crossed over into the poorer Mexican neighbourhood. I noticed quite a few people on their porches just staring at me in disbelief and I started to feel a bit uncomfortable.
As I was still slightly naive at this age I thought I'd just ask someone for directions and eventually saw an older guy who gave me some simple directions and advised that I cycle pretty damn quickly out of there as I was being shadowed. I don't know if he had any influence in the neighbourhood but he walked over a spoke to my 'shadow' and then they both left.
It was a bit squeaky bum time at this point so I cycled the hell out of there, never to return.
The fall
Walked across the top of a waterfall as it approached the edge where it got "shallow" enough. I could have gotten washed off and died in a split second, and it's probably the stupidest thing I've ever done but made for fantastic pictures.
Follow a stranger
A few years ago, was traveling alone in England (20F) and wandering a small village, hungry as all get out, searching for a pub still open. Met a sweet older lady who told me everything was closed, walked me back to her place, cooked food, fed me, chatted with me, and gave me a light sightseeing drive through the countryside back to my hotel. I've never been so grateful, so charmed, nor so certain I never ever want to risk following a complete stranger back to their place again.
Knockoffs
One time I was in a shopping district in Shanghai with a tour group for a student exchange thing in my early 20s, we had some free time to go shopping, when suddenly, me and a friend are approached by this woman who asked us if we were interested in buying "luxury goods", my friend then replied with "no, but we are looking for some are very convincing knockoffs, do you know we can get any?" the woman then smiled and said "oh, but of course, could you follow me too my store?" we had about 3 hours free for shopping, so we said, why not "sure". We then start following her to her shop, 5 minutes go by and we still aren't there, another 5 minutes go by and we still aren't there, she then says something like "we have to turn down this quiet alleyway, is that's fine with you?", at this point we are already 10 minutes into walking away from the group, and we were just like "yes it is fine."
After walking another 10 minutes down this fairly quiet side street we get to these stairs that lead underground, at the bottom of the stairs is a big metal door, again, she is casually just like "this way please". She knocks three times on the door and it opens, before we walk in we decide (hey maybe we should first look inside), and it is indeed a store full of knockoff goods with a few other people inside, so we decide, well we have already made it this far, so we decided to go in. Once we enter the shop, we hear the door closed behind us, and there are these two fairly muscly guys who are standing against the wall, but we don't really think anything of this, because the woman is telling us to look around and see if we find anything we like. After about 20 minutes of look, me and my friend do not really see anything we like, so we go up to the women (who at this point is behind the counter) and my friend just asks "Excuse me, so, what happens if we don't find anything we like?" she just replied with "oh, don't worry, my shop is full of all sorts of goods, I am sure you can find something you like here, especially if you want to make it back to your group on time."
We, (reasonably I might add) finally realize, hey, maybe we have really gotten ourselves into a pickle. It is at this point that we now notice that all the other 'customers' are watching us while we're talking to her, so me and my friend go back to looking around. Eventually, we both find something we like that is not insanely expensive, (however, each item was still close to a thousand won) so we go up to her again, this time with the items, we pay for them in cash, and just like that the two guys who were standing in front of the door before, open the door and she gives us directions for how to get back to our group. And that is how I almost got kidnapped in China during a student abroad program, moral of the story, you really shouldn't follow random strangers down back alleyways.
To be clear, in the end, I loved that trip to China, and I have gone a few more times after that trip, but just like any big city, there are dangerous parts that you really should stay away from.