Matt, I heard stories about this video - love it! That first unnamed paddler looks like maybe he's getting a little too old to boof - muscles really atrophy with age. The 3rd unnamed over the hill paddler looks like he just plugged it and either got lucky by having 1st paddler deflect his angle or those new Jackson boats really are made of magic pixie dust. The rope throw without knowing if anyone else was coming down was way uncool though and fortunate the timing wasn't worse.
If people wonder why there's such a huge gap between me and the person in front of me going into a known hole, it's because I've been on the sending and receiving end of the boater boof. When I'm stuck in a hole with someone behind me, I always kind of hope they'll hit me and knock me out. If you're side surfed, I figure you wait for the bow coming over the horizon line, hold your breath and go under water and hope for the best. It's never really worked for me though.
Obviously if you're the person dropping in and you don't have any alternative lines or don't see the person getting surfed until the last minute, you give 'er right up the gut.
Tony might have something to say on the subject.
