Chances are you’ve already seen this video: a fun, first person view of a daring personal watercraft rider shooting the canyons at Lake Powell aboard a turbo-powered Honda F-12X. Powell’s towering walls overshadow thin veins of crystal blue water stretching out like tendrils into the brown desert. Sadly, water levels at Powell continue to slump to record lows. In fact, most all water levels in the Southwest are slinking back because of the ongoing drought in California. Despite warnings, penalties and fines issued by local and state government, Californians seem to be defiant that they’re running out of water.
We mention this not to bring up any sort of political slant, but to prime the pump for what we witnessed in the video’s comment section. Normally, any person who values their sanity avoids the comment section of any YouTube video like a lice-ridden burlap sack full of bubonic plague. The video is fun and we’re sure any one of us would love the chance to recreate it, but a depressing amount of commentators are calling for the public execution of this rider, GoPro, the manufacturers of PWC and well, just check ’em out for yourself.
Particular highlights include, “Good job killing the environment. Go play in traffic, stupid Republican,” “This video is fake. This is a game and no human can drive a Jet Ski this well. You may fool other people uploader but not me. Just take down this video,” and our personal favorite “white people look for new and interesting ways to kill themselves.” We’d pull the racism card but he does kinda have a point. The number of African American males between the ages of 18-to-25 who have died by jumping a snowmobile off the roof of a barn in 2013 is exactly zero. White males? Three.
Anyways, enjoy the video and get a good laugh out of the comments. We did.
