Everyone has done some crazy things in life, things that in retrospect were far more dangerous than they could have imagined. Sometimes, it's due to the recklessness of youth, other times people are perfectly capable of doing stupid risky things as an adult. From braving the great outdoors to seemingly regular life events like getting married, fun yet mortally dangerous ideas await you everywhere, beckoning idiots to try them at least once.
Here are 18 stories from a Reddit thread that prompted people to share things that were fun to do once, but which people immediately after decided they would never do again. Some will make you laugh, and some will make your palms sweat with fear.
1. tanyanubin thought a horse ride in the English countryside would be charming.
Going horseback riding up a mountain in Wales... steep as hell, horses kept losing their footing. I wanted to get off the horse but it was so steep that I didn't think I could walk back down. At the top was Offa's dyke path. Down one side of the mountain was England, the other side was Wales. Cool views and everything, but I knew I had to go back DOWN. It was honestly terrifying.
2. Running a 5K can be challenging, especially for BAcc2B3 who was naked.
I ran a naked 5k at a nudist resort in Florida. It was fun in a way but also very sweaty, smelly, and a bit... floppy.
3. Scrappy_Larue now thinks spelunking should be left to the pros.
Cave exploring.
In college, a forestry major brought 5 of us out to a remote cave. For starters, you go through a gauntlet of bats just to get in. Inside is a chamber of horrors if something was to go wrong. Choke points that you can barely squeeze through...enormous rooms....ledges with drop-offs that look like infinity below you because your light can't see any bottom. It really hit me afterward how dangerous that was. You couldn't think of a worse place to get injured, and injuries are waiting at every turn.
4. Speaking of caves, HypersonicHarpist would also recommend not bringing your mom along.
My mom (who was 60 at the time) and I went hiking in the Pacific Northwest and she found in a guide book that there was an old lava tube that you could go in on the south side of Mt. St. Helens. The guide book made it seem like it was just a nice underground hike through a rocky tube that the lava had carved out. And that's exactly what it is...if you go to the right. We in our ignorance decided that that was for pansies and went to the left. From the entrance to the exit is only about 1.5 miles long but that was the longest 1.5 miles of my life. See when the lava flows through it doesn't just melt away the rock to create the tube it also super-heats the surrounding rock. When that rock cools it fractures causing the ceiling to cave in in places. This creates 12-15 foot high piles of jagged rocks that you have to climb over. Did I mention the only lights we brought were little hand held flashlights? So we're climbing over huge piles of wet, slippery, loose, razor sharp rock with only one hand because the other had a death grip on the flashlight. We probably should have turned around and gone back after the first pile but in our ignorant optimism we assumed that it couldn't be harder ahead than it was behind...we were wrong. 38 rock piles and a rock ledge that the only way up was a rope not much bigger around than a shoe string later we finally made it back to daylight. The rush of excitement when we came back above ground was one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment I've ever had. I might be persuaded to do it again, but I'm bringing better equipment next time.
4. Caves have nothing on rivers, according to kukukele.
Kayaking in Alabama and the water levels were about 5-6x normal flow rate.
We, being a group of five guys, decided to go down a non-normal trail that is usually woods. The water level was so high that we were essentially midway up the trees.
Well, a non-normal trail means we literally went barricading through several trees. This was all pretty fun until one of our friends go dumped into the water and his kayak wedged into the tree branches. He proceeds to dump me in the water while trying to hang on to my boat and chaos ensues as we go riding down the current barreling into trees with nothing but a helmet and life jacket on.
It took us two hours to get back upstream and recover his kayak. The final casualty count was a pair of flip flops, a nerf football, a bag of funyons, and a paddle. In retrospect it was pretty fun, but in the moment, it was pretty terrifying.
5. Coolest_Breezy swam a river the hard way.
I swam across the Great American River in Coloma, California after a few beers. There and back.
I made it, but I nearly passed out.
Three hours later the current was a lot lower and calmer, and people were effortlessly walking across the rocks in the same place I swam.
Fuckers.
6. KiLLaKRaGGy knows water can be dangerous when frozen too.
I walked out on ice to a small island about a quarter mile into Lake Superior. It was night and middle of February. This area of Lake Superior (5 mile rock, just north of Grand Marais, MN) rarely freezes over. But the ice was about 14 inches thick and we were pretty boozed up. When I got there I noticed this small black spot out in the distance but otherwise the entire lake looked frozen as far as the eye could see. After a few minutes I hear this crashing noise. I couldn't place it but between the wind gusts it sounded like lots of crushing and crashing. At this point I noticed the black spot in the distance is growing larger. After a few more minutes it started to take up more than half the horizon. It was growing very fast. I realized it was open water eating away the ice and coming right for us (made me think of the Langoliers). I told the other two guys we need to get back NOW. We ran back and and it starts to snow. The wind is 20-30 mph gusts so it's a complete black out blizzard. To make matters worse one of the guys is so drunk he falls about every 50 ft. So I have to turn around and set him upright. Luckily we had a street light that we were able to follow otherwise we could have been running out into the lake.
The next morning we packed up to head home and talked about how stupid our little adventure was. We haven't done something that stupid since we were kids. Now we have kids of our own and really shouldn't be playing with fate. As we head down the driveway towards the lake we stop and just stare. The entire lake is open! How that beast of a lake can just remove that much ice so quickly is absolutely incredible. Sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it.
TLDR: Don't fuck with Lake Superior.
7. Just one time for this number two by PowerWordCoffee.
Pooping after major surgery where they cut through my abdominal wall.
Felt great to get 3 days worth of poop out.
Almost split myself in half.
But that post poop feeling x1000
8. fortalyst knows that your special day can be not-so special to plan.
Organizing a wedding.
9. dncare has some more wedding advice.
Having a wedding.
Seriously, I have no idea why people do it over again. Fun experience, but we went cheap (only about $4500), and I still wouldn't do it again.
Then, there's the stress, the fatigue, the sleep deprivation.
No thanks.
10. When making a baby, MortimerDukeIII reminds everyone to be mindful of your surroundings.
Once, I stood up on my bed to change sex positions...forgot I had a ceiling fan. Never did that again.
11. MrSHiat thinks one bundle of joy is plenty.
Having a kid. For some reason we did it again.
12. beeanchor1312 would like to remind everyone what happens after giving birth.
Giving birth. Quite exciting and obviously eventful and I totally loved being the centre of the universe for a few hours. But very few people talk about not being able to sit comfortably for several days; the pain of pooping if you've had a few stitches and the world's longest and heaviest period afterwards ...
13. austinbucco tested the limits of being a Star Wars nerd.
Watching the first six Star Wars movies in a theater before watching Episode 7. It's easy to underestimate just how exhausting watching like 12 hours of movies can be. Especially when the movies start early in the morning.
14. hung_like_a_tripod avoided killer creatures during the full moon.
Surfing at night under a full moon. It was great, beautiful with the moon shimmering on the water. You could still see the waves. Surfed for a few hours and nothing happened. After making it to shore I was just thinking how we were literally the only thing splashing around in that whole two mile bay. Every shark in the area had to know we were there.....ringing the dinner bell. So glad to have the memory and it was so awesome. But after meeting a guy who jumped off a boat at night in that same bay years before and got his leg chomped by a huge tiger shark I would never do it again. Hahaha.
15. Alundra828 nearly got arrested just to impress some girls.
Back in my youth I was with a girl that was totally a bad influence on me. She roped my into to using my man body to break into an abandoned house to have a house party.
We smashed our way in, climbed through and started casing the joint. As I was upstairs, I noticed 2 police cars pulled up. I was the only one in the house. I assumed the girls had ran off or hid. I was alone, in an abandoned house, police were coming quick. 2 officers stayed outside. 2 came into the building. I quickly opened the window, and without even thinking, slid down the drain pipe into a sort of side garden area. The garden was totally over grown like savannah grass. So I went all fucking lioness on that shit and stealthed my way through the grass. On the other side of the garden was a gate that led to an alley way which I knew would be my escape. I crawled along the ground careful, got to the gate, opened it, and legged it.
I've never, ever felt adrenaline or badassery like that before. I felt invincible. But yeah, nah. Never again.
16. Bootches tried the cliché of jumping off a bridge just because all his buddies were doing it.
My friends and I jumped off our town bridge. A good four story drop into the lake beneath. They, being the graceful swans that they were, dropped in like special forces. I on the other hand fell like a brick and belly flopped like a brick. The air was out of my lungs and I was floating down the river on my back whilst my friends laughed. It was a great time but I haven't jumped off that bridge since!
17. Wice_Quispies got the band back together for an illegal jam session.
I snuck into an abandoned radio studio in the middle of the night and had a jam session with some old guitars with a couple buddies. It was cool and fun, yet there was an overwhelming amount of fear and creepiness in there.
18. cuidadodoe raced to Mexico in cars that shouldn't have made it there.
For spring break a group of my friends raced from San Diego to Cabo. We got in teams, bought $500 cars and sold them once we got there. My team ended up making it in 23 hours but after an accidental off-roading experience and dodging two cows on the road, I would never participate again.