Dutch Canal Jumping, a breakdown
What Happened
In this December 2020 detour from baseball, Jomboy breaks down fierljeppen, the Dutch sport better known to English speakers as canal jumping. Made at the request of a viewer named EP from the Equinox Project, the video walks through the history (Dutch farmers using long poles to cross waterlogged terrain) and the modern competition, where athletes sprint, leap onto a tall fiberglass pole, climb to the top, and try to vault themselves over a canal to a sand landing. He breaks down footage spanning the 1950s, when it became an organized sport, through present-day events with bigger poles and special climbing footwear. Plenty of jumpers miss and end up in the water. The clip closes with an unrelated bit about gummies and a podcast plug for Jomboy and Jake Radio.
Why This Matters
This is Jomboy at his most off-script, taking the same frame-by-frame format built for blown calls and dugout meltdowns and pointing it at a niche Frisian sport. The mechanic is genuinely athletic: you need enough body weight to swing the pole forward, then explosive climbing to gain height before the pole tips you toward the far bank. Going over the top versus peeling off to the side is a real strategic choice, and he clocks the small details that decide a jump, like the stutter step that kills momentum and the grip footwear on the right foot. The 2020 timing matters too. With the pandemic-shortened MLB season over, content like this filled the offseason void and showed the breakdown format works on almost anything. Two million views proved the audience would follow him anywhere, baseball or not.
At 2.0M views and ranked #112 of 1,583 breakdowns, this canal-jumping oddity sits in the top 7% of Jomboy's entire catalog, proving the format travels far beyond baseball.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Dutch Canal Jumping (MLB, 2020).
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momenthe's busting down the lane he's running
he jumps he grabs the pole he's climbing
up
climbing up climbing up climbing up
climbing up if you're wondering what the
hell is this it's phil yepen
or dutch canal jumping an equinox
project has been all over me
just on my ass about making a breakdown
about dutch canal jumping so here you go
ep here we go now it started because the
netherlands is so close to sea level or
underwater there's so much water all
around that farmers
would just carry around long sticks just
to get across the canals
two old men just walking around jumping
canals then they're like hey
the whole country is pretty good at this
why don't we see who's the best so they
turned it into a sport
striped shirt right there he does pretty
good number 83 though
this is back in the 50s when they turned
it into a sport he's crushing it gets to
the top of the pole
goes all the way out he celebrates his
friends celebrate with him it used to be
wooden poles then they switched to
plastic now they're fiberglass which
allows more hang time
that sucked that was really bad and the
spy in the crowd like can
barely contain his smile and then then i
guess there was no age limit because
this dude's old
i mean he barely jumps he kind of just
runs into the stick
and now he's swaying i mean pretty
badass because i think this dude's old
old
just misses which is now he's
embarrassed
now he's embarrassed old just misses so
anyway this is what it looks like today
it's a whole big event that dude threw
sand into the crowd
swagger walks to the crowd very excited
with himself gives his mom slash
girlfriend a high five and a hug
that dude behind him is rubbing all the
sand off that was a big leap
onto the pole climbing to the top the
poles are much larger bam
this guy he's got a good thing going
look they wear something on their right
foot to help climb up the pole and then
ka-bam
that one looked that one looked like it
was deep sand he threw the sand
the other direction which was polite of
him okay little skinny dude coming does
he have the weight
that he needs i think you need a lot of
weight to get the portal switch over
he's going all the way to the top
and he goes over the top interesting
strategy i think it worked well throw
sand all over the crowd
and then this kid he's going to get all
the way to the top of the pole
as well and then he comes off to the
side
i wonder if that's a better strategy
than going over the top i wonder if they
have names for these that dude stutter
stepped
and the stutter step killed him and then
he lost his grip
just embarrassing soaking wet has to
walk around soaking wet
just you know he's probably ashamed his
parents are
face down eyes and palms oh my god
the spy's grandson with the glasses on
while playing gets to the top
loses the grip he's not happy with
himself
he wanted to grab the top of the pole so
he could spring himself he loses the
grip there can't
find it and just comes down and here he
is on his second attempt
and not enough weight and he's like what
the hell is up with
this pole i'm going the wrong way
so he has to go into the drink loses his
sunglasses maybe
not happy with his round at all oh
didn't lose his sunglasses still not
happy though and that is dutch canal
jumping this one is brought to you by
jumbo and jake radio it's not a radio
show it's a podcast but it does air live
on youtube every wednesday at noon
it's like two hours of dumb if you're
into dumb come check it out
if i don't have like a handful of four
of those soon i'm about to freak out
okay which one give me for it don't care
come on
back i didn't hear any of the flavors
all i'm thinking about is eating those
[ __ ] gummies
i need four of them right now yes yes
yes
or did you take the only fake teeth is
that what you're about to tell me i
am yet to receive the four gummies here
previously requested took the only teeth
oh are these the teeth let me show them
my ass
ah you went all for at once that's so
good