Launching from the water to slide over long-tail boats, grind across pier railings and soar over wooden footbridges, an Aryan wakeboarding god has turned several Thai locations into an aquatic obstacle course.
Dominik Guhrs, a German champion who’s trained in Thailand three months every year for the past decade, staged a series of stunts at a floating market in Ratchaburi province as well as Ancient City in southeast metro Bangkok for a series dedicated to the Thai capital’s people, food and sports.
“I always wanted to have a project in Thailand, and now after two years in the planning, it’s finally happening,” 29-year-old Guhrs says in a trailer for the series previewing scenes of him making merit and hanging out with Thai parkour artists. “To ride in a location like this in the floating market is a dream coming true.”
The first episode, released yesterday, opens with Guhrs abandoning a tuk-tuk to escape heavy traffic and leap into the waters of Ancient Siam, an architectural theme park in Samut Prakan province.
But first he must take a deep swig of his sponsor’s brand of energy drink and inexplicably pay THB1,000 (US$30) to the tuk-tuk driver, who’s also wearing a sponsor’s T-shirt, because we’ll all tolerate some naked promotionalism to get to the good stuff.
Shot from drones and fixed cameras, he slices through familiar sites with some impressive dexterity as Thai people smile on approvingly. At one point, he really wows some monks out collecting alms.
It ends with the kindly tuk-tuk driver tracking him down to give him that change – which looks to add up to THB40.
Goofy moments and vintage Orientialism aside, the video features some great imagery and stunts, and we’ll stay tuned for the next two segments.
Check it out below.
