- This is objectively a bad idea.
Delivering mail by having teenagers jump off a moving boat,
run down a dock, put the letters in the mailbox,
then leap back onto the moving boat
before it leaves them behind...
it's ridiculous. And not entirely safe?
And if someone suggested it as a new thing, now,
in the 21st century, it would never be allowed.
But "mail jumping" is a summer tradition
here at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, USA,
and it's also a tourist attraction.
And today, I'm going to get to see if I'd be any good at it.
And it seemed like such a good idea
until I put the life jacket on.
- I have been mail jumping for five summers now.
This is my sixth summer at the cruise line in total,
but you have to work here for a season,
and then you can try out to be a mail jumper.
- Now, when this started back in 1916
there was about 60 houses on the entire lake
and that was the only way they can get mail.
We deliver to about that same number, today.
We're not postal employees.
I'm an employee of the cruise line,
where we're contracted to carry the lake mail
for that summer season, which is June 15th to September 15th.
So in 1916, the predecessor of this company
got the mail boat, Walworth, and started
that daily, seasonal mail delivery around the lake.
As you can imagine,
our share of five cents postage from 1916
wouldn't have financed running a boat like this,
and some forward-thinking person came up with the idea
of making this a passenger-carrying mail boat
'cause that's really what covers the cost of making these deliveries.
- The mail boat goes out every day at 10am.
Even on Sundays, we do the Sunday papers.
I do this about three or four days a week
and there are six mail jumpers that do this job.
If we get a big box to deliver,
the captain will usually slow down a little bit just
to make sure we don't fall and hurt ourselves.
But if the package is too big,
we will come to a complete stop.
- Their shift starts at seven
so they start out by cleaning the boat, cleaning the bathrooms,
getting all the supplies on board.
Paige has to go through and get the newspapers all laid out
and put the pier numbers on.
So all of these houses have a street address,
but we correlate that street address with their pier numbers.
We had about 15 kids try out for what ends up
being about five or six spots.
They're a mail jumper and tour guide.
We have them do some of the narration
so we can hear that they're articulate,
then we have them do some jumps.
They have to be somebody that's pretty athletic,
but we let the tryouts pretty much sort that out.
- So I actually fell in when I tried out for mail jumping,
but they let me do it again and get a second chance.
So I got to redeem myself.
You kind of just have to be confident.
Don't hesitate when you're jumping,
because that's when you're going to slip and fall and get hurt.
- Before we set off,
I did get some advice from today's mail jumper.
So leaping off, do I need to match speed
with the dock or anything like that?
- It's not so much about speed. - Okay.
- It's just making sure that you're not running at the boat,
because otherwise you're just going to crash right into it.
- So the jump off, when I'm leaving the boat,
it's just, there's the dock.
Try not to break your leg? Or...
- Yeah! - Okay!
- Don't try to jump and stop
because you're going to be moving again obviously.
So try to like run it out a little bit, as we say, also.
- And then it's just, so it's jump, run, run, run, run, run.
- Thing in the mailbox. - It's going to be right there for you.
Put it in.
- Run, run, run and then?
- Turn.
And then take a few steps, you know, with the boat.
- Okay. So try and match vaguely some speed with the boat.
And then it's leap and grab.
- Yes. - Okay.
I'm going to say the words. How hard can it be?
Let's do it.
- So I have fallen in the lake a few times.
Not so recently, though.
- On the average, probably once a week or so, somebody will go in the lake.
Most of the time when they miss,
they miss coming back onto the boat.
So somebody's outgoing mail might get wet.
We've got a little pool skimmer down below.
If we have to, we've had somebody lean out the door
and scoop stuff back up out of the lake.
The safety vests that they wear are self-inflating.
The moment they get wet, bang, they blow up.
Every pier that we deliver to has a ladder on it.
[chuckles]
And so when they miss, they get themselves back on the pier
and I come back around.
You know, you don't back up to somebody that's in the water.
They jump back on,
they wring out their socks and we keep on going.
They know that their mail might get wet, someday.
They know that their outgoing mail might have tooth marks on it.
- I think this is a great summer job.
It's really fun.
I like being out here on the lake.
Being out in the sun every day.
- Right, my turn. The tourists have left.
The team here are just giving me the same test
that they give to anyone trying out for this job.
It's just that the people who try out
are usually half my age and twice as athletic.
So, you know, what could go wrong?
I'll promise this. I'm only giving myself one attempt.
If I nail this, you'll see it.
If I miss the boat or chicken out on the jump back,
you'll also see it.
This is all I need to do.
You made that look so easy.
[laughing]
I like that you took the time to kiss the goose,
like, that was style points.
This isn't actual mail, right?
This is just-
- Yeah. That's just a extra newspaper for you.
- Let's do it.
I just realized that I'm still wearing my microphone,
so I really do not want to miss this jump.
Okay, so when do I start going out?
I can start.
- Yeah, you can go ahead and climb out.
- You can get on the ledge there.
There's a little stirrup here
that you can put your left foot into,
'til you get ready to go all the way out.
- All right.
[laughing]
The nerves just kicked in.
- You got it.
- And I want to lead with my right leg out, left leg back.
Okay. Oh, this is fast.
This is so much faster than I thought it was.
[yells]
Okay, whoa.
- Oh, he did it.
- Yes!
- Yay, that was a good one.
- That was terrifying.
[all laughing]
Of all the ridiculous stuff I've done.
The bit that scared me the most was the landing.
Just not knowing, am I going to just collapse forward?
Oh, there's the goose, okay.
I don't want to do that again.
How many times do you do that, Paige?
- 40, 50 times, yeah.
- Thank you so much. Uh, Lake Geneva mail boat tours.
Link's in the description.
My heart's going!