Please excuse the hideous pun in the title.

However, it does hint that one of the skills for standing on a log in the ocean may require more fancy footwork than most of us can muster.

In this YouTube clip, Richard Jones tries, tries again, and again . . . until, amazingly, he succeeds. The first belly-flop is probably the funniest bit:

My camera was in its underwater housing, so there’s little sound. Everything looks a bit rosy too, because I forgot to turn off the underwater white balance thingie.

I have played this comical but dangerous game on several occasions. As surely as we encounter a large log at sea, somebody wants to mount it. I assure you that it is profoundly more difficult than is implied by either of these clips. I’m getting a little long in the tooth for such shenanigans, but the next time I find a big one and the sea is glassy, I may have a go. I must remember, however, that old bones heal slowly.

Overall, it’s probably more dangerous and not nearly as much fun as jumping out of an airplane.

In the next clip, the local guy is Skeeter. He runs the dive shop at Madang Resort Hotel. The expat fellow at the end of the log is Gavin Grant. He was a dive instructor in Madang at the time.

We were on our way on Aquaventure to do some diving at Kar Kar Island. Gavin stopped the boat when he saw the log and decided to impress the ladies. He plunged bravely into the briney deep and put forth many game attempts to mount the wobbly knob. It went on for so long that were starting to yawn. I stopped shooting with my ancient video camera because I was afraid I’d run the battery down.

Just as Gavin was beginning to looked sincerely distressed, Skeeter sliced into the water like a porpoise and squirted out magically on top of the log:

Gavin was severely chagrined. We razzed him unmercifully. He blamed the waves.

Gavin is long gone from Madang – I know not where. Skeeter still runs the dive shop. He doesn’t look as young as he did, but I’d be willing to bet he can still stand on a log in a cyclone.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 and is filed under At Sea, Dangerous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.