PORTLAND – A snowmobile operator who shocked game wardens by riding his powerful machine across a long patch of open water – a mile or more – to save himself says no one was more surprised by the feat than himself.

Gary Huntley said he’d never ridden his machine on water – a dangerous practice known as “skimming” – but he’d heard it was possible.

So he made a split-second decision to accelerate on Sebago Lake when the ice abruptly ended Saturday night, leaving only open water ahead. The wild ride in which his snow machine chugged across the water saved his life, wardens said.

“I just thought to myself that as long as the sled is moving and I’m sitting on it, I’ll be able to breathe and live. I’ll stay alive as long as the sled is moving. If I end up in the water, I don’t have a chance,” he said.

Huntley, 44, of Oxford survived the ordeal along with another rider, Jonathan Herbster of Bedford, Mass., who traveled a shorter distance across the water.

A third rider, Paul Blanco of Carlisle, Mass., was missing and presumed drowned. Divers found his snowmobile in 30 feet of water but there was no sign of him. The search was suspended Tuesday night after three full days of searches by wardens.

Huntley said he traveled about a mile before reaching safety. Wardens said the distance was much greater, at least two to 2.5 miles.

Huntley said he decided to speak out because he was frustrated by the public sentiment that the three men were doing something ill-advised.

“We’re not reckless people. We’re not stupid people. I want people to know it doesn’t happen just to stupid people. It can happen to anyone,” said Huntley, who returned to work Wednesday at the local highway department in New Gloucester.

The three men had been riding all day and had traveled across Long Lake, Brandy Pond and Crystal Lake, all of which were frozen solid.

So they thought nothing of riding across Sebago, Maine’s second-largest lake, to reach the WinterFest and Ice Derby celebration that earlier in the day had featured cars racing on a portion of the frozen lake in Casco.

“As far as I’m concerned we’re good sensible people. We weren’t drinking. We had a great day of riding. We stayed safe all day,” he said.

The problem was that the three men entered the lake on the main bay where there was little ice. The WinterFest and Ice Derby was being held in a couple of lagoons where the ice was much thicker, said organizer Tom Noonan.

Snowmobile races across the lake had been canceled earlier in the week because of open water, Noonan said.

“I’m just shocked that they were there,” Noonan said. “If they’d seen it in the daytime they wouldn’t have gone close to it.”

After following tracks onto the lake, Huntley was startled when he saw open water ahead as he was traveling at about 40 mph. He figured he was already on thin ice so he would sink if he stopped. So he gunned the throttle.

Huntley estimated he hit the water at 80 mph.

The snowmobile immediately slowed down, and Huntley thought he was a goner. Instead, he said, the snowmobile kept upright and chugged forward. He said he remembers hoping that the others didn’t follow him onto the water.

It’s widely known that snowmobiles can stay afloat for short distances on open water. The trick, riders say, is to maintain speed so that the belt that drives the snowmobile becomes something of a paddle wheel.

But it’s extremely dangerous.

Skimming was outlawed by the Maine Legislature in 2003, but game wardens credited Huntley’s and Herbster’s instincts with saving their lives.

“At least two of them did what was under the circumstances the best thing to do. But what a terrible position to be in,” said Bob Meyers, executive director of the Maine Snowmobile Association in Augusta.

Huntley said he didn’t dare try to turn the machine, so he let it churn forward until he reached a frozen cove. Herbster, too, gunned his engine and zoomed across the water. Wardens say he went about a half-mile before reaching safety.

There was no sign of Blanco.

“It’s a tragic loss to us. There’s no way we would have done something like that to put us in danger,” Huntley said.