Staying Calm Saved My Life

[striper50trout]

Scary story Chef. Glad you are ok.

I was washed off the rocks by a rogue wave at Hazard last year. I was wearing waders and had a plug bag on my belt. I had to ditch the bag and belt. My waders filled up in seconds. My buddy also was washed off trying to grab me. Luckily there was a guy there who called 911.

My buddy panicked and tired within minutes of falling in. I stayed calm and swam to him to keep him up. About ten minutes went by before the firefighters arrived and threw out a life ring. I grabbed it and swam to my friend who was barely able to stay afloat. I hung onto him and the ring until the rescue boat arrived about a half hour later.

If I panicked we would both probably would have drowned.

The next morning I wanted to shake off the whole incident and went out with my back up rod and reel, because I lost my other set up when I was washed off. First cast that morning my rod snapped in half. I hope someone was not trying to tell me something.