Skipping water and swamping!

You read that correctly!  Skipping water but it is probably not what you are thinking of.  When I first heard the term, I pictured someone skipping across the water kind of like abird skating across the surface using its wings to propel itself.

Then they mentioned swamping, well I kind of pictured a boat with people scooping water out so it wouldn't sink.

Well I was wrong on the first and right on the second.  When people around here talk about skipping water, they mean that someone revved up their snow machine and made a run across the lake.

It was like watching someone on a jet ski.  If they lose power or don't gun it enough, the snow machine sinks into the water or it swamps.  According to one of the guys I work with, the snow machine must be powerful or it won't make it.  One other thing, the lake at its deepest is perhaps chest high so when the machine sinks (swamps) it is fairly easy to recover.

One beautiful sunny day a couple years ago, I saw a guy try skipping water three times and all three times he sank.  The video to the right gives a great view of skipping water.