Skipping for the screen, plus a kind letter...

Friday 1st June
I’m perched unsteadily on the bow of an inflatable Rib, Ceri from Swansea Watersports holding my waist for stability, the light current of Swansea Bay hungrily waiting for me, its next snack, to fail miserably in the first Aquaskipping session for several weeks. I’m squeezed into a wetsuit, providing by Channel Marine who have sponsored me to be here today. In two weeks the South Wales Boat Show spans a weekend at Margam Park, and Channel Marine have Aquaskippers to sell. Ben Sutcliffe, the Boat Show organiser, called me last week and asked if I could come along for a media day to promote the show, so here I am, not overly keen on the cold water below. There’s a camera trained in my direction, and I’m aware that everyone around has never seen an Aquaskipper on the water before. I make them wait for a while, because the first launch was a spectacular failure. I was up to my neck in milliseconds. The next few runs were much better, clearing the ‘Skipping rust out of my brain and rediscovering the rhythm, circling the camera boat as Ben tells me HTV will be filming later on in the day. I finish for a while, take lunch, and sit for a while across the canal watching curious passers-by pause and stare at the assembled Aquaskipper on the dock below. It does look odd there, like a large robotic spider. With handlebars.
Two months ago Chris Perry from HTV joined by in the Cefn Hengoed swimming pool for an evening news piece on my ‘next challenge.’ Chris, bless his heart, managed to get suitably frustrated with the slow learning curve required to master the Aquaskipper, and left to edit the segment without so much as 5 metres travelled. Chris is currently in Australia, so it’s another presenter, James, who has the pleasure of losing his Aquaskipping virginity today. Tonight’s news is going to be beamed live from Swansea marina so I gave James a lesson from the Yacht Club pontoon, with about thirty people gathered on the walls above to see the poor bloke sink time and time again into the murky water.
An hour later James had dried off and donned a white shirt over the top of his wetsuit, in preparation for the live feed. Not expecting to be needed for ‘skipping duties, I gratefully accepted and hastily necked a bottle of Bud from the boat show support crew and sat back to watch the live-to-air segment. James spent two minutes chatting to Ben, explaining the varying forms of craft which were floating around in the background, and then ended by saying, ‘and for those of you who don’t have the wallet to buy a yacht, there’ll also be a fun device called an Aquaskipper at the show,’ to which he unclipped his mic, handed a pile of wires to Ben and pushed off from the pontoon, sinking immediately with a pained expression. Giggles all round, and then my face turned as James informed me that in ten minutes he was going to end his weather segment with the immortal line, ‘and this is how it’s supposed to be done…’ On James’ signal I was going to have to launch off and bounce around between the boats. This was going to be live, and a combination of earlier exertions under hot sun and the alcohol fizzing around my body didn’t bode well for a professional performance. I nervously deposited my empty beer bottle on the pontoon, and started to shake.
The moment came. As he was floating twenty metres away on a Rib I couldn’t hear James as he adlibbed the weather report, and instead I was concentrating on positioning myself at the end of the pontoon so I could push off and skip towards the camera out in the middle of the marina. Having just set up a clothing label called Chilled Turtle, I knew this was my chance to get a bit of TV coverage for the brand. Wearing a sample t-shirt with a big logo on the front, all I needed was to get a good launch and head straight for the camera, but I couldn’t help feeling that the Budweiser might have something to say about that. Eventually James turned around and I heard him faintly say, ‘…well I tried the Aquaskipper earlier and failed miserably, I believe this gentleman is just the man to show us how it’s done.’ And with that he dramatically pointed across the water towards me, and I pushed off.
Please don’t sink.
Please don’t sink.
Please don’t sink.
There’s a glorious moment on an Aquaskipper launch when you see the front skimmer hit the water gently, the small hydrofoil just behind it gliding through the water. The key to a good start is a nice hard push off from the side, bubbles zipping and light glinting off the hydrofoils, a splashing sound as the pushing foot lands on its platform for the first time, both legs pumping in union. A few bounces later I had sailed past the camera, nipped in between a mini-cat and an enormous cruising yacht, rounded a couple of other craft and then started to head back to the pontoon, cruising along and dismounting onto dry land to wonderful cheers and applause. You beauty! ‘That was the Budweiser talking!’ I grinned at the girls who had given me the beer in the first place.
‘More! More!’ yelled Julian from Channel Marine from atop the cruising yacht. As Swansea’s only stockist of the Skipper this was the first time Julian had seen an Aquaskipper in action. Thank god that went well, I thought, as James gave me a thumbs up (and I’m sure shot me evils too) en route back to the dock.

One day later I receive an email from Tom Kaufmann, a 54 year-old American from Traverse City, Michigan. Here are some excerpts…

Dave,
I live in an incredibly beautiful part of the world, on the Grand Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan. I'm 54 years old and make my living as a piano player in a hotel lounge... and have a variety of other interests that you can check out on my web page, but I'm writing to you as ardent, albeit unfulfilled fan of Aquaskipping. This is a story only a fellow 'skipper will understand.
I'm a sailor, and started windsurfing about 23 years ago when the sport was quite new. I got good enough to teach it, and when I was much younger, I'd teach skiing in the winter, and windsurfing in the summer. I also ride a unicycle while playing a harmonica and concertina, so I have a bit of balance, and love the water.
The first time I stumbled on the Aquaskipper videos, I was hooked, and knew it would be my next passion. I was sure from watching the videos that I'd "get it" right away.... so I bought mine about 6 weeks ago, and finally got it into a pool a couple of weeks later. I got a couple of good launches, but the pool was only about 10 meters so I'd get one or two good pumps before I had to ditch.
I was really excited about getting into the open water, and then since I absolutely couldn't wait any longer, I bought myself a drysuit. (Kokata... $465..... most expensive suit I've ever owned, and I can't wear it to work!) I looked all around for a suitable launch, but since the lake levels have dropped severely the past few years, all the docks are much too high, or the water level is to low.
I ended up in a smaller inland lake, and because the water was murky, and I was a bit cocky, I broke the steering shaft by diving down and hitting bottom in about the first half hour.
Karl at Inventist was able to get me a part shipped within a few days, and so as soon as it arrived I went back to the same lake, but launched off a different dock in deeper water. Not deep enough as it turned out, and after hitting the bottom again a couple times, I broke the canard less than an hour into it.
Because of the Memorial Day weekend, shipping took almost a week.... a long agonizing wait.... but I promised myself not to launch in less than 2 meters.
The part came today, and I just got back from my new launch site in the local marina. Deep water but the dock is almost a meter high.
I spent 3 hours of humbling launches, with quite the gallery of curious onlookers, but never made it more than about 7 or 8 meters.
It reminds me so much of the learning process I went through with windsurfing, when I couldn't get it to point upwind, and I'd spend hours walking the thing back to my starting point after getting blown down the beach. I certainly haven't lost my enthusiasm for skipping, but my aching muscles aren't too thrilled with all of the climbing out of the water, and the starts, and lugging it back to the dock. I must have launched 30 times today, but didn't get the rhythm or balance down.
One thing that helped me tremendously...... I had a floating rope tied to the dock, and then draped it over the back crossbar.... and coiled on the dock.
As I launched, the line fed out from the dock without pulling at all, and when I fell, I would pull myself back to the dock with the rope, then pull the other side of the folded line to pull the skipper back to the dock and to lift it out of the water.
It's a bit hard to describe, perhaps I can send you a video..... but I was delighted, because I could pull myself back to the dock, and be ready to launch again very quickly with a minimum of effort.... and since the water is about 45 degrees F, I was grateful. The drysuit works well..... but it's still a bit chilly.
So... I felt like today was really my "first" time.... but haven't yet had the "aha" moment when it all comes together.
It's frustrating to see all of the edited video that makes it look so effortless... but reading your blog has been an inspiration, and tomorrow if the old body isn't screaming too loudly I'll be out there embarrassing myself again. Knowing that it takes time for other people helps a lot. By the time the water warms up mid summer I hope to be skipping the 4 or 5 miles across the bay.
I’ll keep you posted as to my progress... and maybe someday we can skip together in Jamaica.
Yours, Tom Kaufmann

Tuesday 5th June
Another day of filming, this time with the crew from Antenae, who are responsible for producing the S4C show Uned 5. All morning I take presenters Tristan and Llinos through the motions at the Cefn Hengoed swimming pool. Slowly they get it, instant sinkings turning into successful one, then two pump skips. By the end of the morning Tristan had managed to reach the far end of the pool to much applause, but poor Llinos was exhausted and hadn’t managed to find the rhythm. It was heartbreaking watching the clock count down, seeing her become more and more tired as the endless launching, sinking and swimming to the side took its toll. But Tristan’s success added a bite to the competition between the presenters, his grinning face winding Llinos up a treat.
And then to open water. Production manager Rhiain had organised an afternoon session in amongst the yachts at Swansea marina. Initially the idea was to have Llinos and Tristan racing but instead the challenge became a distance battle. Llinos wasn’t at all enthused about sinking into the marina’s murky depths, but she valiantly gave it a couple of goes. Tristan wasn’t having much better luck, finding it difficult to adapt to the extra foot in height the marina pontoon added to the poolside he had learned from. Still, he hopped and skipped as best he could, always splashing down and returning to the surface with a wide smile. I managed a couple of good runs, skipping around the safety boat supplied by local sailing company All Points West and embarrassingly coming a cropper at the end of one run when I tried to glide into a landing on the pontoon only to misjudge the height. The rear hydrofoil collided with the submerged pontoon support and I flew past the handlebars and landed legs over head in the water. Llinos and Tristan enjoyed it, and in a small way it was perfect revenge, as neither of them had managed to look half as foolish as I did after the fall.
The Uned 5 show will air on Welsh S4C sometime in July, we’ll endeavour to place a copy on the BounceFree website.