Extreme sports come in all shapes and sizes. For some of the biggest, most difficult, though, check out these boating tricks and stunts.

A Classic Jump

The first thing to keep in mind when you decide that you want to do something stuntworthy with your boat is that boats are heavy. It’s not like you’re just riding a bike off of a ramp. With a bike or a board you can alter your path in the air, but with a boat, it’s all about how you hit the ramp. If you go off crooked or angled, you could end up flipping the boat in midair. Here, we have guys taking a boat off of a makeshift house in a swamp somewhere, and even though they stick the landing perfectly, you can see at the beginning the danger of it teetering over sideways. You don’t want a boat to flip, as that’s not only going to be hard for you to get away from, but it’s going to ruin a perfectly good boat.

A Wheel-less Wheelie

Some boats are heavier than others, and some boats are lighter. In this case, the boat is light enough to stand on its rear end after aggressive acceleration, allowing the driver to manipulate it into a sustained wheelie-of-sorts. With a lighter boat, though, the calculations might be even more delicate: once that boat is upright, any overly enthusiastic acceleration or movement is going to end up with the boat flipping over backward and you in the drink. Going too slow means that the boat will fall back to its prone position, which, after all, is no fun. It’s only a very specific type of craft that will be able to pull off a tricky maneuver like this, and a specific type of pilot who can keep it from taking on all that water he’s surrounded by.

The Submarine

There are many things that boats are meant to do. One thing they are not meant to do is go underwater. That’s actually the opposite of what a boat is meant to do. Regardless, these two manage to take their speedboat completely under the surface of the lake and then live to tell about it, surfacing waterlogged, but in good shape. Who knows if they intended to do this or not. Our guess is on the not, though the video seems to be suggesting that they did. Still, it’s an amazing testament to the versatility and durability of these crafts. If your vehicle can survive what would presumably be one of the traumatic events it could endure, then you know it’s in good shape.

Jet-Powered Turns

Speaking of things that boats aren’t meant to do: boats aren’t meant to turn this fast. Yet, here we are, watching a jet-powered boat turn at breakneck speeds. Sprint boats are of a slightly different breed than the boats we’ve been considering so far, with the ability to stop and start at a much quicker rate than most water-crafts. The lack of friction on water Vs the friction on road makes this a very difficult thing to do. With these boats, though, pilots can essentially drive like motorcyclists, careening around corners and going from zero to lightning in a very small amount of time. The turning radius is particularly impressive, considering how hard it is to avoid sliding across the surface of the water when you move like that.

Jet-Powered Fleet

The last thing that boats aren’t designed for: going on land. If you can go fast enough, though, anything is possible. Here, we have pilots taking boats over one waterlocked hill after another. The key here, of course, is to pick up sufficient speed so that you won’t immediately hit land and stall out, which is exactly what that boat will want to do. Speed is also important because it will help you avoid ruining the boat; the longer that boat spends on land, the more likely it is that some important system or mechanical element will get mucked up with dirt and grime.

Cover Photo Credit: Chase Lewis / flickr.com