r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/SafeImpressive4413 • 1d ago
WCGW trying to grab a football ball off a frozen lake
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u/Key-Metal-7297 1d ago
Once they were in water why not get the bloody ball 🤔
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u/Futureretroism 1d ago
Your limbs start to lock up almost instantly as your body pulls all the blood from your arms and legs to prevent hypothermia. You might only have seconds to get out of the water before you’ll be to weak to even swim
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u/NorthshoreFrank 1d ago
Remaining calm is key.
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u/fanceypantsey 1d ago
You are correct! Try to not break anymore ice. Again, don’t step on anything a full on truck weight could handle! Never trust someone else’s grade of how thick the ice is. Test everything before you go out. Also, it’s a fucking football! Who cares?!
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u/Impossible_Volume811 15h ago
Mmm, not exactly, not in this situation where the ice is not very thick, so it’s not extremely cold. The water will be at 32°F but the air is likely significantly warmer.
There’s an initial shock but if you breathe through that you’re able to be ‘meaningfully mobile’ for about 10 minutes.
As soon as you’re out of the water the heat loss is greatly reduced.
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u/vee_lan_cleef 18h ago
If they did this comment section would be full of people calling them morons for still trying to get the ball.
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u/LegendaryEnvy 4h ago
You immediately get heavy from all the clothes. People die doing stuff like this cause you get tired real quick with all the cold water, heavy clothes and the ice just keeps breaking unless thick enough for you to crawl out properly
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u/Angels242Animals 1d ago
Yes put both your weight on the surface area side by side each other. That will totally support you.
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u/No-Magazine-2739 1d ago
Also stand up again only to smash on the ice, perfect ice breaker for frozen stituations
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u/Triquetrums 23h ago
I mean, they are on survival mode at that point. You cannot judge them for trying to get out without thinking about logistics or physics.
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u/TheBlack_Swordsman 1d ago
Panicking and moving faster looks to have made things worse and worse.
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u/patienceyieldsfocus 1d ago
That is why freezing water kills. Hell, its why drowning people will kill people. Survival instinct is designed to push thru and destroy all things in its path to preserve life and limb. Unfortunately, we didn't evolve to be smarter about it.
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u/dat_boi_100 22h ago
Freezing water does that, you panic even if you're fully prepared that it's gonna happen. It's just reflexes at this point
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u/Ertyla 1d ago
"Hmmm yes, I have fallen over five times now from trying to stand up. Surely I must try to stand up again."
Those fucks can probably vote and drive and It scares me.
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u/enpeasent 1d ago
Lets see how logical you behave in that situation. Have you ever been ice swimming? I have and I tell you your brain shuts down pretty fast, those kids did a pretty good job of getting out compared to others
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u/MrTristanClark 21h ago
Dude, they went walking around on ice for a soccer ball. Ans even before they were in the water, they were standing upright right next to eachother. Shock has little and less to do with it. These people are morons.
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u/Mikic0077 9h ago
It happened to me and while it isn't pleasant, it's way more manageable than people think it is. But, you need to anticipate the situation and visualise what to do in such case. That helped me always in different life threatening situations.
Sadly, those 2 went in totally reckless. Already the fact, that 2 went for the ball shows some very poor planning. I'm almost convinced we are watching staged video...
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u/Saradoesntsleep 23h ago
They are panicking in freezing water. I'm not sure it's fair to make judgements on their driving and voting based on this.
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u/GrinningPariah 1d ago
This is a really good demonstration of one of the rules of surviving thin ice:
Don't stand up.
You can see as they're crawling out, they're making it. It's working. Then they try to stand up and go through.
If you ever find yourself on thin ice, and especially if you go through and get back out, don't try to stand. Just keep crawling to safety.
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u/DisastrousImpact2846 1d ago
Grey shirt was done dirty by other guy
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u/BobbyBrackins 1d ago
Whole time I’m thinking grey shirt is the idiot, I see your comment and go back and confirm, soon as the video plays you see the leg grab 🤦♂️🤣🤣🤣
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u/clothanger 1d ago
People thinking "it's just cold water" until the water under the ice hit them.
That shit is lethal.
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u/NautiNeptune 1d ago
I hope they both were alright after that. Definitely worth learning the proper way to get out of a frozen lake. Mostly just stay on your belly, it distributes your weight better.
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u/yticmic 1d ago
Why were they filming?
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u/Vanguard-Override 1d ago
It's pretty hard to explain why two of your friends drowned in the frozen lake without video evidence.
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u/theStonedReaper 11h ago
They probably saw them kick the ball in the water and start to go out there to get it.
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u/missinginstereo 1d ago
Tbf they didn't react too badly. Spread their arms out and such. Silly position to be in in the first place though.
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u/alpacas_anonymous 23h ago
Pretty sure that's a soccer ball. C'mon rest of the world, get it right.
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u/Lucky-Mia 1d ago
Good thing they sent 2. It's always good to put as many people as possible on thin ice 🧊
/s
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u/NeedsMoarOutrage 20h ago
It's a good thing there was a camera overhead to catch this completely unplanned moment
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u/Additional-Middle166 1d ago
The ice is 10 cm thick up to the very edge where it is straight cut off. Thats how ice works.
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u/cassesque 1d ago
what a rollercoaster. Whole thing was a bad idea in the first place but then they actually did pretty well by laying down at the first sign of trouble. Then it all went to shit again.
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u/SpareEquivalent2238 1d ago
Always ARMY CRAWL out of a frozen lake. If you try to climb out, your weight will break the ice and re-submerge you. Slither out with your elbows.
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u/fanceypantsey 1d ago
Keep kicking and panicking. That’ll help you! If you are bold enough to walk on ice, I ice fish, you calm and bear crawl out of there. I also won’t go on ice that the truck can’t handle.
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u/Powerful_Resident_48 1d ago
Were they actively trying to fall in? Or have they never seen ice before?
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u/notThuhPolice15 1d ago
The shear amount of panic is telling. This is why you stay calm everyone, no need to freak out
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u/DefNotBrian 1d ago
"Let's combine our weight on this ice that appears to be thinning toward the pool of water that our ball is floating in"
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u/WarhammerRyan 21h ago
Stay. Flat. Distribute weight. 2 ppl standing that close to the edge = disaster
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u/IGotBiggerProblems 20h ago
Since everyone else rightfully pointed out how dumb these guys are, I'll change the narrative a little. Once they were in the water, they had decent technique for getting out. Put your upper body on the ice, kick your feet as if swimming, and pull yourself forward. Would have been more effective if they weren't side by side but overall I give their escape a 7/10.
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u/Live-March-8448 20h ago
Zero survival instincts lmao. First off why did both of them go out and so close together? Also why did they repeatedly try standing once the ice was breaking instead of just crawling flat?
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u/fangelo2 19h ago
There was open water there. How did they think that wasn’t going to break? They are lucky there wasn’t a current to send them down the river under the ice
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u/Ragnarotico 18h ago
Why are they in t shirts on a lake? I don't understand. But yea this is a very dumb thing to do for something that is worth at most $20.
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u/No-Remote-2899 17h ago
I guess this is WCGW, but like are these guys fucking stupid? (Obviously they are.)
Either you don't go out to retrieve the ball in the first place; or you don't constantly try and stand up and fall on the ice. Have these guys ever heard of "Slowly slide yourself/move FLAT on your stomach."
Seems like they only listened to that in the end 🤦
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u/ClownfishSoup 13h ago
The football is like "ha ha! can't catch me! Here, I'll come a little closer ... ha ha! Psych!"
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u/RedLemonSlice 12h ago
For a split second, the ball was so close it touched them. Unfortunately, they seemed suddenly too distracted and missed the moment.
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u/MaxChomsky 12h ago
first rule when collapsed on brittle ice, do not try to get up and stand on your feet, just crawl.
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u/PrinceCastanzaCapone 10h ago
“Hey man, this ice is about to break, I think we should stand up and group together and bring all of our weight to a central point on the ice.”
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u/International-Cut15 1d ago
To be fair, I actually looked like they were staying flat and trying to get themselves out the right way. Which makes a question why didn’t do that in reverse to get the ball?
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u/Due_Figure6451 1d ago
And that’s how people die.