Getting hit by a boat is perhaps my greatest fear when freediving in local waters. Drowning is up there....shark bites are low on my list around here because it hasn't happened to a diver in a long time in So. Cal. Yesterday I found out about a hidden danger hunting WSB! Ok....I'm hearing croaking in a shallow bay on a sandy bottom. I'm diving down and laying on the sand next to the cloud of milky water hoping a fish swims out into view.....suddenly it feels like someone stuck an ice pick into my left thigh!!!! I reached down instinctively and grabbed the area and I feel a wiggly thing pull away leaving me with a very painful stinging and burning pain in my thigh. I never saw what it was but I'm pretty sure it was a Sting Ray. I looked and saw a hole in my wetsuit and found that my leg hurt too much to kick with it. I yelled for my dive buddy Tom who was on the boat already but he was too far away to hear me....I had no choice but to do like Capt Ron and kick back to the boat with one leg :) I have more respect for that guy every day. Anyway, I had a long swim of several hundred yards back with one good leg and the other one trobbing with pain. When I got back to the boat I took my wetsuit off immediately and was happy to see that there was no stinger left in my leg. I took some pain killers and we headed home. At home I took a Jacuzzi and that seemed to lessen the pain quite a bit. Still, I was in pain and limping most of last night....today I feel much better....just some residual soreness. That sure was an unexpected Danger!!! On the long swim back to the boat I thought of the Crocodile hunter that died when a big sting ray stuck him right in the heart. I was alot luckier...I ended up with just another story for my kids and friends......Labugman