What almost killed you?

In college I worked at a marina. We would rent jet skis to tourists, then take them out to the riding area and basically act like a lifeguard until their hour was up, at which point we'd take them back to the marina. Now, rainy days at the beach suck. People are bummed they can't go lounge on the sand, so they try and do the other stuff they wanted to do on their vacation, like rent jetskis.

One rainy day, a group of tourists come and rent 5 jetskis. We warned them that riding in the rain felt like sticking your hand out the window on the highway, in the rain, except all over your body. They were undeterred, so I took them out. The water was choppy, and the rain was steady but not ferocious. I gave them the lowdown, and then went over into a little cove-like area that was shielded from the wind by highrise condo buildings built right on the water. I'm sitting on my ski, watching the tourists and counting down their remaining time when I happen to look up, over the highrise, and notice the drizzly gray sky above me had turned into swirling, ominous black clouds. I radioed back to the marina that I was starting to get uncomfortable with the weather, and they agreed.

I took off at top speed to round up the tourists, just as the rain turned torrential. Visibility dropped, and the chop was fierce. I round up 4 of the 5 skis, get them in a group, and tell them to wait for me until I find the last ski. I'm starting to get frantic, the storm was really bad at this point, and I'm worried that if I don't find the missing ski soon, they're going to drown. I made a giant arc around our riding area, and spotted the missing ski well outside the boundaries. I got to them as quickly as I could and motioned for them to follow me before taking off, heading back for the main group. I never stopped or slowed down as I sped past the waiting group, I just made a 'follow me' gesture with my arm and all five skis were in tow. At this point, the storm had turned into an absolute nightmare. Thunder and lightning, extreme wind, very heavy seas, and driving rain. Knowing a return trip to the marina would take at least 5 minutes crossing open water, I made the split decision to beach the skis at the nearest shoreline and wait the storm out there. I had to be the last one off the water, so I pulled off to the side and directed the tourists to drive straight up onto the beach. They do, and I follow suit. All 6 skis are safely on the beach, myself and all the tourists are accounted for. I'm still kind of in shock, radioing back to the marina where we were and what our status was when the tourists starting 'ooh-ing' and 'ahhh-ing' as tourists are wont to do. I turned to look, and saw 4 giant waterspouts dancing around each other in the water... in the exact path we would have taken to get back to the marina.

TL;DR- quadruplet water tornadoes

/r/AskReddit Thread