Water Walking

An Austrian named Karl Naumestnik, 38, last week walked across the English Channel from Cape Gris Nez to Dover. The direct distance is 20 mi. but currents carried the walker out of his course. He made the crossing in eight hours. On his feet he wore a pair of water skis. Two other Austrians tried to follow him but grew weary.

An Austrian water ski is made of a bamboo frame about 8 ft. long, 2 1/2 ft. wide. The frame is filled with a tapered rubber bladder topped at the centre with a boot-like rubber cylinder. The walker's foot and leg fit into the cylinder up to the hip. Fastened to the underside of the frame are two hollow cones. The broad hollow ends are directed backward and provide sufficient hydrodynamic resistance to keep the skis from sliding backward between steps. The water-walker must exert much effort to keep his legs from going apart and from under him.

Austrians have been experimenting with such water skis for two or three years. Last November the device was perfected sufficiently for a demonstration at the Vienna Municipal Baths. There is an Austrian Water Ski Club, whose enthusiasts amble about on the Danube.

Two years ago Abercrombie & Fitch, Manhattan sporting goods store, imported a pair of water skis, sold them to the Cavalier Hotel at Virginia Beach, Va. This summer a Brooklyn German named Ernst has been cavorting in a pair on Long Island Sound.

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