He just never suspected he would one day live to prove himself wrong.
He thinks he probably would have drowned the day "a massive wave just bombed" him off the rocks at the remote fishing spot on the Otago Peninsula last year if rescuers had not arrived as soon as they did.
Suffering from hypothermia after 30 minutes in the water, with two dislocated and broken ankles and a shattered knee, the 30-year-old Dunedin man said he just concentrated on other things to keep the panic at bay.
"I was thinking I'm still young and I don't want to die. I had family coming from Aussie. I was thinking about that, thinking of them."
Mr Coleman counts himself lucky he was not one of the 10 people recorded as having drowned in Otago last year.
The near-drowning incident has led him to reassess his life and set some new life goals.
"`A lot of people get setbacks in their life and a lot of people don't get second chances like I have, so I have got to take it on the chin and get going."
He owed a huge debt of gratitude to his rescuers, the friend he was fishing with, his surgeon and staff on Ward 3C at Dunedin Hospital, and his partner and his family, he said.
He returned to Cape Saunders yesterday for the first time since the incident, and described how panic hit him for the first 10 minutes after he was washed into the sea.
He was soon out of breath and realised he needed to get himself under control.
When he tried to swim, his feet went "clunk, clunk" with a feeling that made him feel sick, but adrenaline and the cold stopped him feeling any pain.
He shouted at his friend, who was watching from the rocks in horror, to go and get help, promising him he would keep floating until he came back.
Just when he believed things could not get any worse, he thought he saw a shark.
He noticed "a grey thing sticking out of the water", but it turned out to be the bottom of his fishing rod.
When a fishing boat came around the headland, he thought he was hallucinating.
"I swam up to the boat and grabbed the guy by his jersey and he said `Whoah, whoah, you're going to pull me in'."
The fishing vessel Tirohia had been about 600m offshore when it responded to the call on the marine radio after the alarm was raised on November 18 last year.
Mr Coleman was transferred to the coastguard vessel, which ferried him to the jetty at Wellers Rock and he was then taken to Dunedin Hospital, where he underwent seven hours of surgery on his legs.
Doctors removed a rock 3cm in diameter from his femur bone and the surgeon told him his weight had probably kept him alive.
Seven weeks later - four were spent in hospital - Mr Coleman still has both legs in plaster and is using a wheelchair.
Mr Coleman, who has fished most of his life and regularly at Cape Saunders since 1992, said he also learned some lessons that day.
"Check the weather forecast. Take your time getting down, have a good look at the sea and don't rush. And get yourself a lifejacket as rock fishing is one of the most dangerous sports around."
