I was at the beach this past weekend, boogie boarding amongst some fairly large waves, when I happened to catch the wrong wave at the wrong moment.  This particular wave was about five feet tall, and it happened to hit me full force on the head and drive me down a few feet to the ocean floor where I landed directly on my face.  It all happened pretty fast, but I remember thinking, "Oh crap, I snapped my neck and now I'm gonna drown."  I quickly hopped to my feet and stood in the waste-deep water trying to figure out if my body was still intact.  I decided that since I was standing, my neck probably wasn't broken.  I couldn't hear for a few seconds, which allowed me some time to check out my arms and legs to see if there were any exposed bones.  I asked Wendy if I still had all my teeth.  I was pretty sure I permanently disabled myself because of how hard I faceplanted, but aside from some cuts on my face and some blood-spitting, I was fine.  My neck was sore for a day or two, and the cuts are finally starting to heal.  The worst injury is probably the abrasion on the inside of my bottom lip caused by rubbing my face in the sand.  Inner mouth cuts take forever to heal. 

I couldn't help replaying the experience in my mind later that night, and I'm surprised how close I was to dying.  I essentially did the drunk-person-dives-into-shallow-water thing, except instead of diving I was propelled by a wave.  But really it was the same motion, thankfully with different results.  The thing is, I'm not new to the ocean.  I understand how waves work, and I've been tossed around before and not been able to figure out which way was up.  This was like that, except quite a bit worse.  And the other thing is, I had been boogie boarding for hours up to that point.  The waves had actually calmed down a little because it was low tide.  So I don't know if it was the perfect combination of time and place, or if I just happened to get hit by the most powerful wave in the ocean.  But I'm thankful to have all my teeth and not need a wheelchair for the rest of my life.