Question

describe vividly the incidents when the writer went punting with a young boy

Answer 1

Skinny dipping. Punting is a term to denote "skinny dipping", a prank or sort of ritual for students at Cambridge and other English schools as a prank or "rite of passage" in the UK. So the "writer" (teacher/mentor/professor/coach) went "skinny dipping" with a young boy (student/mentee/budding writer/teammate) to teach him the ritual and to show him that he is "naked to the world" and to just "dive right in". My best guess anyways from various experiences and stories told to me.