Wednesday, 19 December 2007

The Myburghian Leap

The Myburghian Leap was invented by my crazy friend Mr Myburgh (also known as G-force, Swaer, Graeme, G, and in a certain incident involving a pool and a rake, "you fucking arsehole!")
The object of said jump is to take pictures of yourself doing spectacular and artistically posed jumps in exotic settings.

Although the origins of this growing art form are shrouded in mystery, The Myburghian Leap probably started in Salar De Uyuni, the world's biggest salt pan, in Bolivia. Congrats to Ally for taking this fantastic pic below, which started it all!



Although not technically a Myburghian Leap, this photo of the sexy Corrine deserves inclusion for her bold leap at Crystal Pools, one of my favourite places in the world - baboon attacks excluded!

Here I am at the top of the Waterfall at Crystal Pools.

The Myburghian Leap does not need to be reserved for scenic spots - its very useful to while away the time waiting outside the church before weddings! This is known as the Formal Myburghian Leap.


Here we have the mighty Steven Clegg, pulling of a super Myburghian Leap by sheer coincidence. He was at the time merely trying to jump over the river, but what fantastic height!

Ah, this must be vying for the top spot of best leap photo. Here we see Mr Myburgh himself, leaping at the top of none other than Myburgh's Waterfall Ravine!

Ah, now this is me leaping on another of my all time favourite hikes on Table Mountain, immortalised in my geocache, Frodo's Journey. This leap was actually done in the Eye of Sauron!

In Myburgh's Waterfall Ravine - tricky landing.

Yet another of my favourite places in Cape Town, and also the location of the longest surviving geocache in South Africa, Sentinel View.

Man, watch out for that drop! At the top of Sani Pass, Lesotho. Spectacular views! Highest pub in Africa just down the road.

Did you know that Lesotho is the only country in the world that is entirely more than 1000m above sea level. Big up to the Lesotho posse!

Here I am looking a bit like an orangutan at the highest road pass in Southern Africa.

Chickenman leaps in the snow - wicked!

A new technique!

Graeme gets superb height in the office. Did he use the desk?

Flying high above the Betties Bay dunes.

Myburgh jumps to appease the flooded volcano gods.

No wonder ET wants to go home with people jumping on his head!

Myburgh convinces Boet, Lucy, Ally and Kerry to join in the fun down under. Winning height from the Boet!

And lastly, I had to include this, as this was almost the end of my leaping days. A failed attempt at a leap on this trig beacon almost resulted in my untimely demise, but luckily I escaped with just a twisted ankle.
Pity the photographer missed it - it would have been a corker!

7 comments:

Graeme said...

well done, boet, what a classic post - had me holding my sides. Who is the sexy girl doing the leap? Not suprised you nearly killed yourself on the beacon! That's the smallest landing space i ever saw. Wicked!

Graeme said...

PS - thet leap from Mr Clegg is very impressive. I'd love to see a classic leap from said fellow. Think we'll need to let him into our leaping cult!

Graeme said...

PSS I have done a little research into the mysterious origins of the Myburghian leap. Here is an early leap performed 4 months before the Uyuni leap - done at Paarls Rock. See it at http://bp3.blogger.com/_iAkdLdKoyNo/RmI6Fv-d0rI/AAAAAAAABAk/lGDMRHPippQ/s1600-h/lean4.jpg . You can see that it is a very unsophisticated leap, has yet to evolve into the sublime art form that it would later become. The earliest recorded Myburghian leap though was one performed in 1981 - see here: http://bp1.blogger.com/_iAkdLdKoyNo/RmI6GP-d0uI/AAAAAAAABA8/7RQlGtJHwzI/s1600-h/sport%202.jpg

A determined leap it is, but without the exotic backgrop preferred in more modern times. Besides, a leap of this nature would probably turn out fatal on a mountain ledge or beacon platform. So in many ways, it is not a pure Myburghian leap. But a prehistoric form nevertheless.

Graeme said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Graeme said...

Hey - what a fantasic entry - the techniques are definately improving. Keep up the good work:) Love the professional leaping photographer. Love Ally

the pooks said...

That one above Myburgh's Waterfall ravine (at the cache site) had me cringinging. I've been there and I was nervouse just standing still. Nuts. Impressive photos though.

Anonymous said...

A total bunch of nutters!