The Official "Real-Life Bad Ass" Thread

[Baraka_Guru]

Many of us revere the concept of the "bad ass" figure: that manly man ---and the increasingly popular female prototype---who takes matters into his own hands to get things done.

The recent film The Expendables is essentially homage to the bad ass in film. Chuck Norris is a figure of mythic proportions and is now an Internet meme.

The idea of the bad ass, the tough guy, the anti-hero, or, generally, the figure who bends or breaks the expectations, rules, conventions, or simply common etiquette of society (or the universe) is perpetuated in entertainment and culture.

But, you know what? There are real-life bad asses out there. Every so often we hear about these guys in the media. They do something of note, and when we hear their stories, the only thing that comes to mind is: damn, that guy's a bad ass. Remember that guy who cut off his own arm to escape a boulder that pinned him to the ground in the middle of no where? That's what I'm talkin' about!

I'm not entirely sure whether there is a thread like this here, but searching for this kind of thing is a bit difficult, so here we go. List your favourite real-life stories of bad asses, whether they be from the past or from recent news.

Man fends off polar bear with punch to the nose

August 13, 2010

Wes Werbowy can still see the polar bear’s head pressed up against his tent’s mosquito netting.

“I wish I could find an artist to capture this image in my mind,” says Werbowy, who survived a recent up-close-and-personal encounter with a polar bear with the help of an old Inuit trick.

“It is burned into my brain — the eyes peering and the ears flat and the head about as big as a bushel basket jammed right toward your face.

“There was just this implacable stare for a thousandth of a second. And I thought, well, it’s my day to die.”

Werbowy was camping on the tundra outside of Whale Cove, Nunavut, on July 16 with three Inuk hunters he was training to be outfitters and tour guides. The party had set up camp with separate sleeping and cooking tents to minimize the bear hazard, but one large male bear didn’t take the hint.

A light sleeper, Werbowy says he was awakened shortly after 3 a.m. in the pre-dawn Arctic twilight by a sound he didn’t want to hear.

“I can hear a bear inhaling with a snuffling sound,” he says. “They do that when they’re on the trail of a quarry — and it’s right outside my tent.”

He’d left his shotgun at the front of the tent. Werbowy started to unzip his sleeping bag.

“The bear heard that zipper. And that, to him, was the sound of food being unwrapped.

“There’s no describing the beginning of the apparition. He was just there — it was instantaneous. I’ve got a thousand pounds of bear, standing on my firearm, his face collapsing the screening of my tent right toward me where I’m still in my sleeping bag and staring at this black nose about two feet from my face.”

That’s when he remembered some words of wisdom an Inuit elder had once shared. The most sensitive part of a polar bear is his nose and if all else fails, take a swing at it.

That’s what Werbowy did.

“I came up off the mat with as strong a fist as I could throw and I punched him as hard as I could right on the nose. It was like hitting a bag of thawed hamburger. It was just this tremendous resounding splat.

“Instantaneously, he just changed ends and vanished.”

Werbowy climbed out of his tent and woke his companions. Simon Enuapik was the first one out.

“I just ran to him with this great big grin and said, ‘Simon, shake my hand. I’ve just punched a polar bear right in the nose!’” Werbowy recalls.

James Enuapik, Simon’s brother, was also in the second tent.

“We tried tracking the bear but it was so foggy,” Enuapik says. “Wes was so excited that he punched a polar bear.”

Werbowy admits it.

“I was on a high that’s very difficult to describe. And duplicate.”

Enuapik says the area where they were camping is known for polar bears.

“Every camping trip, people encounter a polar bear now,” he says. “This past winter I’ve been hunting seals, I’ve seen fresh bear tracks every trip I went.”

He says the trick that saved Werbowy’s life is well-known to Inuit hunters.

“My uncle fought a bear three times. The three encounters he had with a bear, he always would punch its nose. It’s the most sensitive part of the polar bear.”

Werbowy is just pleased that both he and the bear escaped the encounter unhurt.

“I’ve just won a life lottery. And so did the bear.”

Man fends off polar bear with punch to the nose - thestar.com

[FuglyStick]

Yeah, that's pretty bad ass.

Now if we could just get him to expand his vocabulary beyond variations of "instantaneous".

[Baraka_Guru]

Hey, off his back. At least he doesn't speak in monosyllables.

...and he punched a polar bear in the fucking nose!

[noodle]

I don't know, Kyle Maynard is pretty bad ass.

[uncle phil]

anybody ever land an airplane in the hudson river?

[desal75]

Aaron Ralston can never, ever be called a sissy.

He cut off his own arm after it was pinned under a boulder. In 2003 I believe.

[Walt]

Originally Posted by desal75

Aaron Ralston can never, ever be called a sissy.

He cut off his own arm after it was pinned under a boulder. In 2003 I believe.

Psh. You want an arm? I can get you an arm...

[lunxpress]

Can it be a woman?
My favorite is Rosa Parks......not fucking with her, are we?

[Hektore]

Originally Posted by desal75

Aaron Ralston can never, ever be called a sissy.

He cut off his own arm after it was pinned under a boulder. In 2003 I believe.

No, I can't call him a sissy, but I can call him a moron. He went mountaineering in a dangerous area without telling anyone where he was going or when he would be back. Also did not bring anything to call attention to himself, say a whistle or flare. He got himself stuck behind that boulder and did about everything right to see that he stayed there. Granted, most people would have just laid there and died and kudos for him to having the cojones to fight for life. But a bad-ass he ain't.

[Amaras]

Originally Posted by Hektore

No, I can't call him a sissy, but I can call him a moron. He went mountaineering in a dangerous area without telling anyone where he was going or when he would be back. Also did not bring anything to call attention to himself, say a whistle or flare. He got himself stuck behind that boulder and did about everything right to see that he stayed there. Granted, most people would have just laid there and died and kudos for him to having the cojones to fight for life. But a bad-ass he ain't.

I think he was a badass when he needed to be, which qualifies him
in my book.

[chriswin8]

Originally Posted by Amaras

I think he was a badass when he needed to be, which qualifies him
in my book.

Yeah i am going to have to agree his planing may have been lacking but when it came down to it he became a bad ass when he needed to be. Could you say the same about yourself. I pray none if us ever have to find out.

As for the OP, yeah gets his bad ass award. I don't know if i would have the wherewithal to clock a bear in the nose. That man has a big set on him man... Made of titanium. Awesome.