Pentecost Land Diving - Pictures

I have early memories of reading about the nagol or land diving of Pentecost in National Geographic in the library so I was excited about bringing my own children to see it in person.

The first boy getting ready to jump

and going ...

and gone ...

still moving fast when they hit the ground

and hitting the bottom

and hitting the bottom

Dancing and singing as part of the nagol

Another boy jumps

You can see the vines they use in this photo.

For such a famous event, you would kind of expect/dread a more touristy infrastructure.  The white sign marking the location of the nagol is a sheet with the "Land diving" written on it.

The nagol tower.  Liz got this photo the day before when the light was better for photos

The French village just north of where we saw the nagol.  They do the nagol as well but it appears that there is significant tension between villages on who can stage the nagol for yachties and tourists

Liz and her usual entourage

Kids communicating by drawing in the sand

Liz talking to Luke who, as we understand it, was the driving force years ago to bring foreigners in to see the nagol.  Benjamin appears less interested.