42 Comments on “Very Vaguely Related to Previous Entries Today”

1. Blank box. (Is this a thought exercise?)

2. You looking on an iPad or something?

3. And lo, they appear in raiment of neoprene with waterproof shoes upon their feet. Follow thou, their Holy JetSki of Portugal! These guys are messiahs; I should know, I’ve followed a few.

4. Oops – that must be what “Done with errors on page” refers too. I am going to have to check out your blog at home (on a Mac instead of a business computador.) Please disregard me.

5. With the trees and bushes clearly sticking out of the water, I would guess that the lake flooded and they are simply running in shallow water, then dropping into a deeper part of the lake.

6. I’m going to go with a dock submerged by the high water. Their max distances before sinking are very similar. Nicely done though.

7. Sorry, at 48 seconds into the clip, you can see the guy’s last step causes (whatever it is he’s stepping on) to actually rise up in front of his foot, causing water to go up in front of him.

   Whatever it is, it remains below the water, but it obviously was something loose enough to move when jumped on.

8. There was a Mythbusters a while back where they were able to walk on… well, not water, it was some sort of flour-based liquid.

   Seems like it would be possible to do, though, if you had the right speed & materials. Some air-filled shoes with a very water-repellent surface ought to do the trick.

   If nothing else, you could go ask Ric Ocasek how he did it.

9. There was a Mythbusters a while back where they were able to walk on… well, not water, it was some sort of flour-based liquid.

   I believe it was cornstarch + water, which can be really cool

10. FWIW, I’m looking at it on an iPad without any trouble. A neat clip, though if it is (as seems likely) a hoax, why not go a little crazier?

11. Man, what the heck is with me and html links. “cool” should have linked to this:

12. GAK! EMBEDDED VIDEO!! ACK!

    Holy crap, how’d I do that???

13. Back in undergrad, one of my physics profs and I worked out that if you wanted a human to run on water like a basilisk lizard, the human would have to run at about 60 mph. Somehow, I do not think that those guys were running that fast. :-P

14. The cartoon physics is strong in these lads.

15. @Greg: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking of. Wow, that stuff’s freaky.

16. Fred#10
    I think they have totally nailed how far to take it. They have that surfer, X sport sort of mentality in the interviews, they have enough of the “almost but no, missed it…” footage. They will take in at least 50% of the people.
    If they pulled it over the top, with say a back flip, then fewer people would fall for the thing.

    I wonder if it was first posted on April 1st?

17. these guys actually run on cornstarch water.

18. There’s an old joke about this involving a priest, a minister, and a rabbi:
    http://www.lifeunwrapped.com/laugh.html

19. Extremely hydrophobic shoes / flippers are the sine qua non of this sport.

    Of course, the hard part is getting them to stay on your dirty-bags-of-mostly-water feet.

20. Uh, I’m going to go with viral marketing for the shoes. It doesn’t make it any less fun though. :-)

21. Owen@13; that is close to the number I remember (58 mph). Might be less with bigger shoes though.

22. Greg @ 7: Excellent catch. I don’t think I’d have caught it without far more forensic dedication than I was ready to put in.

    Sara @ 16: Yeah, I thought it was pretty much perfect too. The failure rate is actually one of the best parts of the craziness, and they have the enthusiast tone note perfect. Probably ’cause it’s real, just not directed to its ostensible object of desire…

23. Yeah, high-viscosity fluids, lots of youtube vids with people running on custard and stuff.

    This, however, not possible. Basic physics.

    You only suspect it’s a hoax JS? I thought you, like, wrote science books and stuff? ;)

24. Notice how they all sink at almost the exact same point once they get running, thus confirming Greg (#7) theory about something under the water to run on.

    Nonetheless it’s very nicely done :D

25. At about 2:20 in, you can see the change in the water where whatever they’re running on ends… I predicted to the step where the guy was going to fall in. So yes, probably somewhere with a little flooding and they’re running off a dock. :-)

26. Certainly a hoax; almost certainly viral marketing for the shoes – one of them is wearing a baseball cap with the shoemaker’s logo, for instance. But very well-made.

    Owen@13, Chuk@21: so Flash, Dash of the Incredibles, etc, really could run on water? I was under the impression there was a problem with density/surface area ratios or something.

27. Bob @14: I was thinking sort of the same thing. There was a comedian who did a routine about how he liked to pick up hitchikers and then freak them out:

    “Put on your seatbelt, I saw this in a cartoon once but I think I can do it…”

28. It looks suspiciously like softcore porn what with all the fit men in neoprene running in water.

    I call BS, but way cool BS.

29. The walking on water was fun. I agree, probably a submerged dock. The video is really well done.

    That cornstarch & water on a speaker is positively hypnotic! It’s like a lava lamp met a monster from the moon and got funky. Very funky.

    (Wondering if I have cornstarch in the cupboard AND a speaker to spare…)

30. “Liquid Mountaineering” — the guys who put that together really do have the extreme sports motif down pat.

31. This reminds me of the ending of the old movie “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.” Where Master Chiun makes his escape.

32. I also remember hearing years ago, about people hydroplaning ATV’s across lakes.

    It does seem in this instance, like they are very consistent about what path they run.

33. My favorite part is the music. I love how Gustavo Santaollala’s music is getting such weird, wide play. It will always evoke Deadwood for me.

34. I like when they’re waking up early and sleeping in the car on the way to the lake. Heh. I watch a lot of Fuel TV and they’ve always got those shots. The whole thing is well done.

    You can, however, snowmobile across water. I’ve seen it done and know a lot of folks who do it. If you’ve ever dug one of those suckers out of the snow you know how heavy they are and how freakin’ cool it is to see them skate.

35. I vote for the sunken dock. If you pay attention to the trees and shore, it sure looks like they are all running the same (more or less straight) course out into the water, and they all sink in the same spot. When they sink in, they’re running in different spots.

36. Didn’t Danny Hillis invent water walking shoes a couple of decades ago?

    JJB

37. It’s an acrylic sheet just below water level, which is what some people have seen bucking and twisting at certain points in the video. It’s the same trick used for music videos and magic tricks where people walk on water – the acrylic has almost the same refractive index as the water, and so seems invisible in low light.

38. Comments on YouTube indicate it’s a viral marketing campaign for Hi Tech shoes. It’s still pretty cool, though.

39. @ Owen & Chuk: According to the BBC Life series, humans have to run at 65mph to walk on water. Truly, the shot on the documentary from underwater looking up at the basilisk lizard is impressive.

40. Bo, Gus… (Gus, Bo…)

41. Been there, done that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bEu9wLDjKY

    See about 1:40

42. I really liked their names. Total Euro-Extreme Sport style.

    Wasn’t there also a recent marketing campaign of a similar nature, where the guy ended up on a baby pool after being rocketed across a valley?