videos of stone skipping record

Kurt Steiner, who holds the record for most skips of a stone across water with an astounding 40 skips, has videos of his record-breaking skip on his site.

Direct links: the best angle at normal speed and in slo mo, and another angle

The part I find craziest is the end, where the skips appear quite close together and the stone isn't moving very fast, and seems to just float above the water. I think this is partly an illusion, from foreshortening because the stone is far away from the camera toward the end of the skip. But still it's pretty amazing.

Here's a Nature.com news story that explains the best method for stone skipping, based on high-tech research using high speed photography. The short answer: make the stone hit at a 20 degree angle with the water.