when i was 13 on vacations in corsica island , mediteranean sea, in the morning i decide to go the beach alone my parents still sleeping. I get there, sea is calm theres s nobody and i swim with my mask and snorkel kit...500 meters from the beach. I start to get tired and decide to head back when something weird happens; I'm more and more often at the through of the wave and...waves actually get taller and taller, for some reasons I almost cant see the fucking beach anymore. So I'm 13, skinny, didnt eat shit in the morning, tired of swimming, I know nobody knows where i am at that moment, and apparently something is wrong with the sea it aint calm anymore. I thought i was going to die for the first time of my life. I kept swimming with everything i had, finally almost reached beach when in the last 100 meters or so i realize that waves crashing on the shore where like 5 meters high.
I kept trying to reach the beach and the last test is to actually get out of the water while the huge waves recede and pull my frail body back into the sea, so I m almost out of stamina and shunted between the waves that became huge and in a last effort i finally reach the sand, head back home while looking at the huge waves crashing on the shore wondering what went wrong.
Said nothing to parents. In the afternoon listening to the news we learn there has been an earthquake under the sea in the morning that generated the waves i was caught in in the morning.
That's funny I ll always remember this event.