I just released the Tarzan clip. It’s a 9 minute clip. I’m wearing my leather, lace-up thong, I fall into quickmud and it’s not long before I drown. That all takes about 6 minutes. After that, I climb out and clean up in the creek. Enjoy!
Here is a link: Tarzan Goes Under
Three consecutive days of mud
I don’t even know where to start. You probably saw my previous post from Friday’s adventure. I tried again on Saturday, but this time I took my professional audio gear to deal with the wind. Saturday was a rough trip; my toes got so cold in the mud that they were pins-and-needles for at least 10 minutes after I got out. Saturday’s mud was thick, but not too thick. If it hadn’t been so cold, I’d say it was perfect.
Sunday was quite a workout, too, but it was much different from the previous 2 days. I started out by uncovering the clay pit and making another failed attempt at reaching the ring I installed at the bottom. By the time I gave up, I was a mess, so I did some bondage in the clay to make it worth the cleanup. After cleaning up my mess from my clay adventure, I had just enough time to paddle out to the swamp and catch the late day low tide. I did more painful bondage in the swamp which pretty much wore me out.
I’m winding down for the evening, so I’ll just leave you with a few more video frames to illustrate my weekend. The image to the left is from Saturday, in the thick mud. That was some truly amazing mud. I hope to return to it, soon.
The last two images are from my messy bondage adventures, today. One from the clay pit and one from the swamp. I’m sure you can figure out which is which.
Follow Cam
I had an idea for a mud clip. I would chain my ankles and try to escape the swamp, again. In order to give myself a competitive advantage, I decided to wear running shorts.
Of course, this would be a test of the follow-me camera rig. When using the follow-me rig, I need to record audio separately. It turned out that the wind was gusting terribly, and my external audio was adversely impacted by wind noise, in spite of my best efforts.
Getting on with the story … I started shooting in the sandy part of the creek, so I could run through the shallow water and fall down a couple of times to get good and wet. I then moved on to the salt marsh; ankles still chained, and resumed my “run”. Slogging through the mud and swamp grass with my ankles connected by a rather short chain was bad enough, but I also had to keep up with the audio recorder. I spent a lot of time, setting up one shot after another. I realized that this clip would be more out of the mud than in the mud, so I wanted to make the struggle as realistic as possible.
After much running and tripping, I finally took the plunge into the really deep mud hole. I sank up to my chest right away. After that, it only took a couple of minutes for me to disappear below the quaking surface. It’s always sad to see me go, but at least I went out, doing something I enjoyed.
Unfortunately, the cool mud, combined with a brisk wind, gave me a chill, so I moved quickly to get back to my kayak, rinsed off, and into some warm, dry clothes.
Since I arrived home, I reviewed the audio and the video. I think I can cut together a short clip from the hour of video I shot. I’m pretty sure I’ll be tossing most of it. The good news is that I may have another chance to shoot in the swamp tomorrow. I’ll probably try something less complicated, so I can set up a shotgun mic with a good windscreen.
A New Camera Operator
I was finally able to coordinate a trip with a friend of mine who has offered to operate a camera for me on a mud shoot. I wanted to do a Tarzan themed video in the woods, so I put on my lace-up, leather thong and we went to the peat swamp. Since this was my friend’s first trip into the deep swamp, I tried to make it easy for him. As it turned out, he strayed from the trail and got stuck. He managed to record his some of his predicament on video.
For the main feature, I climbed around in my leather thong until I just happened to fall out of a tree and into a pool of bottomless peat mud. I struggled and eventually slipped below the surface of the quaking quagmire. I’m not sure how I manage to fall into a bottomless mud trap almost every time I go out. I guess it’s one of life’s great mysteries.
At least I manage to get it all on video!
I had a pretty good time. The wind was a little chilly, so I didn’t stay in the mud as long as I would have liked. Once I was cleaned up, dried off, and dressed in dry clothes, we paddled around and shot some video on the creek. It was a pretty day to be out, even if it was a little cool for mudding.
Regarding these pictures, the first one in the upper left is me, setting up for one of the first scenes. The top right image shows where I got stuck and drowned. The next image on the left is after I dragged my muddy body out of the mud, and the lower left image is what I looked like immediately after my immersion in the thick peat mud.
Weekend in the Forest
In case you all think that I can’t leave the house without getting muddy, I thought I’d share some “action shots” from this past weekend in the national forest. I was with a small group, but most of them were out on the trails when I set up my GoPro to get some video clips.
We arrived fairly late on Friday, camped out for 2 nights, and returned on Sunday. I had a video shoot on Sunday night about 90 miles away, so I had to hustle to get ready for that. I finally arrived home around 4:30am on Monday.
Nobody in the camp had a good saw, so I chopped and split the logs with my ax. I enjoyed chopping wood while everyone was out hiking.
The campsite was right on the river, so I couldn’t resist taking a dip, even though the water was a bit chilly. It seemed warmer the 2nd day when I took another dip. It was refreshing.
It was a pleasant weekend. Aside from a steady wind, the weather was perfect. I didn’t get much sleep while I was in the forest, and I only got 4 hours this morning, so I’m still dragging. I should have my batteries all recharged by Tuesday. I am looking forward to a trip into the swamp, this week. There will be mid-day low tides for several days this week, and the weather is warm enough. The forecast is calling for rain, today and Tuesday, but Wednesday and Thursday look promising. If I do go mudding, you can read about it here. If you subscribe to my Twitter feed, or the RSS feed for this blog, you’ll be notified of updates. It sure looks like it’s going to be a good year for mudding.
April 1 Foolish Mud
Low tide was just 1 hour before sunset, and the temperature was already dropping when I put my boat in the water. However, it was April Fools Day, and I am a fool for mud. I took some warm clothes, in case I got chilled by the cold water.
The tide was still going out when I arrived at the mud. I had less than an hour to sunset, so I couldn’t wait for low tide. I was also sure that I would not be getting very muddy. I arrived wearing jean cut-offs and a cotton shirt. I wasn’t there long before I stripped down to my Tarzan thong. I wandered around, barefooted, in the soft swamp mud, and sank up to my thighs a few times.
I don’t really have much to report. It was a very short trip. The mud felt good on my legs, and I longed to go deeper, but the temperature was dropping noticeably as the sun met with the western horizon. It was a nice day to be out. I would have gone out sooner, but I’ve been busy, and there wasn’t going to be any mud to play in until 6:30, anyway.
I did get some video of my bare feet, for people who like muddy feet. I also shot as much of the “action” as I could, so I’d have something of a video-blog from the trip. The video will be pretty short, when it’s ready. I’m not sure if it will be a free video, or an inexpensive for-sale clip. That will depend, in part, on whether or not I get a lot more video in the coming weeks. I’m going to update the 2014 gallery with a couple more frames of me in my thong.
Spring has officially arrived!
It was just warm enough to take advantage of a 9:30AM low tide. I did my best to take you with me. The images you see in this post are from my GoPro, as it follows me though the mud-flats.
I put on my really short denim cut-offs and a sleeveless black t-shirt when I got out there, because I knew they were going to get very muddy. It was a relatively warm morning, but it wasn’t warm enough to forgo a dry change of clothes.
I didn’t have to slog through all of that deep mud to get where I was going. Actually, I paddled right past my intended sinking hole, just so I could shoot video, as I slogged my way back to it. That’s how much I love you guys.
The tide was pretty low, and I had enough time to play, given that it’s still too cold for an extended wallow, but I got off to a late start and cut it close. If I had gotten out there sooner, I might have played a little longer.
After my long slog through waist-deep mud and some rather cold water, I got mired down in the thick mud you see in the picture above. As is common with deep, thick mud, I got trapped. When I tried to escape, I sank deeper into the quagmire. Frankly, it was hopeless; all attempts at escape were futile. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite get a total immersion out of it. I was almost up to my ears when I gave up. The tide was coming in, and I knew it was going to take a while to go those last 6 inches, if I could even do it. Thick mud feels great, but it’s not so great for the classic “glub, glub, glub” scene.
I sort of dread editing the video I shot today. There is a lot of it, and I think it will need a lot of editing. I think the video quality is pretty good (I haven’t seen it all, yet). It should make for a fun clip, once I get it together.
On a funny note, I knocked the GoPro face first into the mud, while I was recording. The scene goes completely black, and when I resurrect the camera, the lens is mostly obscured by mud. The only way I had to clean it sufficiently was to lick the lens. The camera was recording the entire time. Hopefully, this will be the last time I have to lick my camera clean to keep shooting.
The Swamp Diaries (Mar 15)
Well, it happened again. This time, the tide was really low (that’s a good thing), but I couldn’t stay out a long time, because there was a frigid wind blowing. If the mud had been 10 degrees warmer, I could have just stayed immersed, but I was losing body heat, both in and out of the mud.
The images on this post are all from the aftermath of my feature adventure. The premise of my misadventure was that I was being chased, and trying to find a way out of the swamp. You should be able to determine from the pictures on this post, that I was unsuccessful. 🙂
This was my first full immersion of the year. I must say, the mud was a little too cold to really enjoy it as much as I normally would. It was still a good time.
I was worried about getting cleaned up in the cold water; especially since I would be borderline hypothermic by the time I got to a spot where I could immerse myself. As it turned out, the cleanup wasn’t too bad, even though the water was pretty cold. I put on an old, dry shirt for my trip out of the marsh. Between the protection afforded by the shirt, and my aggressive paddling, I had warmed up a bit by the time I got to a nice spot for washing off. I wish I would have shot video of the cleanup, but I was pretty focused on getting rinsed off and into dry clothes.
All in all, the trip was a good one. The mud was great. My only regret is that I wish I could have stayed out there longer. Spring is right around the corner, and things are warming up. Between now and June is usually some of my best sinking weather. The really hot summer weather brings it’s own hazards (more bugs, snakes, and alligators). Once the days are in the 70’s (> 22C), the cold is manageable.
On a side note: There is lots of moss again, this year. Given that water temps are close to normal, I have to assume the growth is the result of nutrient overload. It’s probably a combination of farm runoff and people fertilizing their yards. We’ve had a good deal of rainfall the past 2 years, so people use more fertilizer on their lawns, and more of it makes it to the estuary. It’s hard to say what sources are the biggest contributors, but it’s sad to see the algae take over. It depletes the dissolved oxygen in the water, choking out fish, and reducing biodiversity. I love my creek for more than just mudding. A thriving, healthy ecosystem is the underpinning of all life, including our own. It’s a lovely planet, and I hate to see it gasping for air.
I should have been a Pangolin
Swamping in a thong
The weather was near perfect on March 11, and there was a midday low tide. The low tide was a bit lame, but it was low enough for me to wiggle my ass into some swamp mud. I decided to wear a silver thong that I purchased in the winter months. This was it’s first trip into the swamp (it may also be the last, since the finish on the thong didn’t hold up to all the rubbing; more about that in a minute).
When I arrived at the chosen location, I realized I had not packed my JVC camera, so I had to shoot everything on the GoPro. I took the GoPro out of it’s waterproof case, so it would have better audio pickup, and put it on a mini tripod. The camera was very close to me, all the while I was recording, so I was able to move it around for different perspectives. It also picked up pretty good audio, since it wasn’t locked in a waterproof box.
I picked a spot where the mud was pretty thick, so I could sink slowly and take advantage of my near nakedness. The sun was warm, and there was only a light breeze. I could have an extended session with my mud hole and not worry about getting cold. Getting cleaned up would be another matter, but that was not on my mind, when I was sinking slowly into the creamy mud, and massaging my cock through the thin material of the thong.
The deepest I sank was just a couple inches (5 cm) below my nipples (you can see the high mud line in the photo in the upper left). I could easily have sank deeper, but this video was to be focused on the man-bulge in my thong. There was much rubbing and some mud humping. I am sad that the thong didn’t survive, but I suppose they aren’t really made for that kind of abuse.
Sadly, once I had finished my erotic wallow, I put the camera away (since it was no longer protected from the elements), rinsed myself off as best I could, and got dressed for the paddle back to my car. I would have loved to have stayed out there until sunset, but I had other commitments. I’ve been rather busy, of late. It’s hard to find a day when I don’t have a meeting or a pressing deadline.
Camping in the Croatan
I had a get together with some people on Saturday, for a hike and picnic in the national forest. After that, a friend and I were canoeing to a campsite somewhere on Hunters creek. We left kind of late, and the sun was threatening to set on us, so we detoured up a small tributary to see if we could reach the forest edge and set up our campsite before dark.
We both got wet before we got to high ground, because we had to get out of the boat and drag it through the marsh grass. The next morning, my friend went for a run in the forest with some other trail runners, and, while he was gone, I had a leisurely breakfast while I attempted to dry our things on a clothesline near the fire.
It was a pleasant morning, so I went out to explore a little. I discovered that the tide was going out, and our trip out was going to be a lot harder than our trip in. So, I broke camp, loaded the boat with all of our gear, and proceeded to drag the boat across the marsh grass, into the small tributary, and out to the main creek. I sent my friend a text message with an alternate rendezvous point, so he wouldn’t have to deal with navigating the marsh.
Of course, as all of you know, I’m pretty experienced at navigating the marsh, so I wasn’t really worried about the trek. I did have a heavy boat with a load of gear to drag behind me, but I was confident that I’d get through.
It was a pretty active weekend, with the hike, a pretty long canoe paddle, and getting in and out of that camp site. I don’t think I’ll camp there, again. It wasn’t worth all of the scratches and cuts I got from the saw grass. The good news is that I recorded a little video while I was slogging out. The video actually shows the easy part of the marsh trek, but I really couldn’t get any video until the channel got wide enough to have a clear view. I was up to my crotch in mud a few times before I set up the camera. By the way, this is me, trying NOT to sink!