doing the job. that we have a little fun once in a while and a lot of times it gets caught on tape. defying the rules. >> there's no greater adrenaline rush. >> there's always been something wrong with me. >> defying the odds. >> it is just in my dna. >> i have a lot of fun and take a lot of physical abuse at the same time. >> even defying gravity. >> at what hell. i'm going to jump out of an airplane. >> when i do a big jump, anything can happen. >> it is all in a day's work for the extreme athlete. >> what we are doing is really a different sport altogether. it is extreme and it is dangerous. >> and in sports like these, you can't reach such extremes without risking your very life. >> it is not as glamorous as it looks.

you get hurt a lot. >> this huge, like, 6-foot wall, solid wall of snow just like mowed me over. >> this is not happening. this is surreal. this just happened. >> i had a major head injury. i had bleeding on the brain. i broke all of my ribs, i punctured both lung, ruptured my spleen. i broke six vertebrae in my neck and my back. >> these folks would have it no other way. >> i'm like fonz, you know? >> old saying goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. >> the game is on. welcome to "caught on camera: the danger zone." i'm contessa brewer. combine an adrenaline junki we a sports enthusiast and what do you have? an extreme athlete? they take risks and push boundaries, breaking records, breaking the rules and breaking a few bones along the way.

and danger, it is all part of the game. remember how your mother would say, if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you? well, daryl freeman may have said yes, but only if he could do it on a skateboard. in our first danger zone video, he does exactly that. >> i've done a lot of stupid things, but i guess that's the first one that i actually caught on camera with a lot of different angles. i would consider myself an adrenaline junkie. i think i'm addicted to it. if i'm supposed to work, i want to go skate. it pretty much consumes my thoughts at all times. >> daryl's specialty is downhill skate boarding which he says takes a special skill set. >> you have to not be afraid of blood, pain. you have to want to go faster. i think there's a lot of friends that i used to skate with and they would get hurt a few times

and that was enough for them. i guess if you enjoy the pain and the challenge of just trying to make it to the bottom of the hill and survive or make it to the bottom of the hill without falling, once you do that, you want to make it to the bottom of the hill faster than the last time. i guess you got to want the thrill. >> like the rest in this show, it is all about pushing limits. i want to warn you, anything you see here don't try at home. >> it is just like any challenge, like mountain climbing or a video game, just trying to get to the finish, just trying to make the next one the best one and do it as fast or as good as you can. >> it's a friend's spontaneous suggestion that plants the seeds for the jump. >> a friend of mine came over and said, daryl, let's go jump off the bridge. so we ran over and just leaped off and ever since that night it was kind of something we were just joking about, like one day we have to skateboard off the bridge. in the back of my mind i was serious about it. you're always looking for new

obstacles and new things to, i guess, to make the artsy side of skateboarding better. >> he puts the plan into motion choosing the mission bay bridge in san diego. >> we had a lifeguard and a boat, so we had somebody in the water. we had a lot of friends. we ended up doing this stunt. from the time the ramp was on the bridge to off the bridge it was four minutes and 30 seconds, i believe. it was pretty quick. and we were just hoping no policemen would drive by in that time. >> since what they are doing falls somewhat outside general traffic safety rules, they move quickly. >> love you brother. >> but, of course, the unforeseen obstacles are the one that is complicate things. in this case, it is something called speed wobbles. >> speed wobbles are when your board is not adjusted properly. maybe your settings are a little too loose and you are not prepared for speed or your weight is distributed unequally. in this case, the rope pulled me

forward and off of my axis and somewhat off balance, so when i hit the ramp i was still in get rid of speed wobble road then fly off a bridge mode and i was pretty much out of control when i hit the ramp so there was no chance that i would have done what i expected to do. >> the flip he does as he launches off the bridge, not grandstanding, he says. >> the flip was not part of the plan. i just wanted to launch off the ramp and have a nice view, hang out with the birds and just do a nice big air right to the water and then get rid of my board at the last second. because of the speed wobbles, i was leaning too far back when i hit the ramp. i was probably still going a little too fast and i just got ejected and ragdolled and then i just held on for the ride. as i'm flying through the air, i was mostly thinking, safe landing, like, hit the water safely. i did a belly flop. >> it is not exactly the graceful landing he is hoping for. >> when i hit the water, it was painful. i was stunned.

the water was cold, freezing cold. i don't like cold water. i couldn't breathe. i was thinking my boat looked like it was really far away and it was coming to me really slowly and my skateboard was floating and so i just tried to swim to my board to stay afloat. i couldn't remember what to signal my lifeguard to tell him i needed help, but i was okay. >> can't breathe. >> i was able to stay afloat. i wasn't sure if i was going to pass out, but i was afraid it was possible. >> he stays conscious, catches his breath and makes it safely to the lifeboat. >> come on, come on, come on. come on, come on. >> and says that while this stunt crossed into the danger zone, today it is less about the danger and more about the speed. >> my future plans, i think for right now, racing in the downhill circuit would be exciting enough for me. i don't have to launch myself off bridges to get my kicks at the moment. danger is not my middle name, but i guess i've always had injuries from doing stupid things, so there's always been something wrong with me.

>> speed is fun. speed is my middle name. coming up, a motorcycle jump leaves its rider dazed and confused. >> i don't have any memory of the jump that night. >> a mid-air collision puts a skydiver on a crash course with the ground. >> for a brief time i thought that i was going to die. >> and a skier tries to outrun an avalanche. >> when i saw the video, that's when i really came to terms with how incredibly monstrous this thing was. >> when "caught on camera: the danger zone" continues.

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in may of 2002, he attempts to beat his record of nearly 81 miles per hour on an active volcano in nicaragua. it is to be the last ride of his professional career. known as the red baron, barone prepares with a specially designed mountain bike prototype. he makes the trek up saronegro and gets ready to go. he mounts the bike and hits the slope. he flies down the volcano at a dizzying speed. suddenly, the bicycle seems to disintegrate underneath him. he's hurdled over the handlebars. his helmet ripped off him. he tumbles down the slope for nearly 110 yards. when he finally comes to a stop, he is still conscious but barely.

he is rushed to the nearest hospital an hour and a half away. eric says the high speed was too much for the prototype bike causing it to collapse. the good news -- before the accident he reaches more than 106 miles per hour. breaking his previous record. the bad news, eric suffers massive injuries, including six broken ribs, a broken leg and a head injury. his right hand is nearly torn off by the fall and he undergoes three shoulder operations. it is nearly two years before he is fully recovered. the man known as the red baron today only has partial memory of the accident, but he says he has no regrets. he intended it to be the last run of his career, and, indeed, it is.

we now go from the volcanoes of nicaragua to the sunny skies of australia where a mid-air collision leaves a skydiver without a parachute. >> skydiving is unique. there's no experience like it. >> jumping out of planes is nothing new to jerome rich. he's logged more than 400 jumps since falling in love with the sport in 1993. >> one friday night i got home from work after a particularly bad week and thought, what the hell, i'm going to go jump out of an airplane. as soon as i had flown out of a plane, i felt the wind rushing past. as you leave the aircraft. you have spectacular visuals of the aircraft as you fall away. >> jerome is hooked. mping t of planes becomes his passion so much so he forms a competitive jumping team. >> i was part of a four-way

intermediate team called axis at the australian national championships. >> jerome is so dedicated he shaves the name of the team into the back of his head. >> rider competition, all members of the team, rub the magic head for luck. >> but luck is not on their side one december day in australia on the last day of the national parachuting championships jerome's team gets ready to jump. all week long the team's jumps have gone smoothly and safely. >> we'd finished competition two days before, and we were just here doing fun jumps. >> a teammate's helmet records the action. an excited jerome gives the thumbs-up. 13,000 feet in the air, jerome leaps from the plane and begins his 120-mile-an-hour plunge to earth. >> after the actual deployment of the parachute, the generally

feeling smoothly and it is quite comfort pbl. i was flying my canopy downwind of the target. >> but moments later something goes wrong. >> when i felt a thump, i was stunned. at that point i knew i had been involved in a collision with another parachutist. >> another jumper who has just released his parachute crashes into jerome. >> i looked and i had purple around my face. my parachute is black and white, so i knew it wasn't my parachute. >> a bystander catches the terrifying moment on amateur video. moments after the two men collide, they are 1,500 feet above the ground and rejoem is trapped in a tangled web of cords from the other jumper's parachute. he's unable to move, unable to see and unable to free himself. >> i could feel myself spinning rather quickly. i was aware of the force and i was aware of the other parachuters below me. i don't know what i was waiting for, i was just -- just there. we were spinning.

>> together the two weigh more than 300 pounds, and they are held by only half a parachute. for 40 seconds the two fall helplessly out of control. >> for a brief time i thought that i was going to die because i think i was almost surprised when i hit the ground. i hit the ground. >> another pilot rushes to where >> the girl ran past me and said you better dial for an ambulance. two parachutes were in a wreck and have just hit the ground. i said, how bad? she said, it's got to be the worst. >> they hit the ground at about 25 miles an hour. jerome lands on his side and amazingly he's conscious. >> after i hit the ground, i opened my eyes, saw the grass, which i was very happy about. and then i sat up, had a look at the other parachutist and saw that he was more seriously injured than i was, so i started calling for help. i started checking my

extremities. i wiggled my toys and both me feet, my fingers, my wrists, my elbows, my shoulders. a few people were surprised i was talking. speaking to a lot of people afterwards that actually witnessed it, they said they expected a double fatality from watching it go down. >> his injuries are relatively minor compared to the other jumper jeff ditgo who lands on his head. >> one, two, three, go. >> jeff suffers a fractured skull, a collapsed lung, broken ribs and spinal injuries. >> very lucky boys. very lucky. and i hear jeff is apparently, jeff is recovering and jerome is lucky to be standing there. coming up, one extreme athlete knowingly tempts faith. >> when the avalanche started, we just pointed and outran the avalanche. that was definitely reckless. >> while another wonders if he has tempted fate once too often.

>> did something happen? did i black out? what went wrong? >> when "caught on camera: the danger zone" continues. so what's your news? i got a job! i'll be programming at ge. oh i got a job too, at zazzies. (friends gasp) the app where you put fruit hats on animals? i love that! guys, i'll be writing code that helps machines communicate. (interrupting) i just zazzied you. (phone vibrates) look at it! (friends giggle) i can do dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs... you name it. i'm going to transform the way the world works. (proudly) i programmed that hat. and i can do casaba melons. i'll be helping turbines power cities. i put a turbine on a cat. (friends ooh and ahh) i can make hospitals run more efficiently... this isn't a competition!

a brave jumper, a legendary motorcycle and a record-breaking attempt all collide in a horrific crash that leaves a crowd stunned and the fate of the rider uncertain. when you meet bubba blackwell you're immediately bowled over by his southern charm. >> hey, i'm bubba blackwell. harley davidson motorcycle world record jumper. i make a living riding a motorcycle because the mensa club kicked me out in alabama. >> bubba has been riding bikes for as long as he can remember, and he's the first to admit jumping motorcycles for a living is a pretty cool gig. >> you know, when you are going through your routine in the dressing room, you are putting on the gear, putting the leathers on, the boots on, you are zipping them up, part of me kind feels like, you know, dadgum, this is the coolest job in the world.

i'm like fonz, you know? >> he would like you to think he's just a good old boy from alabama, but all joking aside, what bubba does takes talent, skill, planning and a lot of guts. >> when i do a big jump, anything can happen. >> on july 4th, 2001, the worst happens. >> the last thing i remember is putting the bike in gear and letting the clutch out. >> bubba attempts to jump 22 cars at the delmar fair where he performed a crowd pleasing show in 1999. >> we drew a record crowd back then, and i jumped over 14 school buses. a really cool jump. it went great. it was flawless. i said, we got to do this again. i'm thinking, oh, yeah, i got the perfect plan. so my idea was to jump over 22 cars on a harley davidson motorcycle off of a 7-foot high ramp. >> ever the showman, bubba intends to give the audience their money's worth. >> so the day started off pretty good. i got to tell you, they paid old bubba to be there, so i wanted to make sure i did my job.

so what i did was i hired a laser light show company and we rocked it. all the cars were white. we wanted them to look really uniform, and we spent most of our concentration on making sure we put on a fantastic show for everybody. and if i had that to do over again, i think i would spend more time on making sure i got to the other ramp. >> in front of 35,000 spectators and a backdrop befitting a rock star, bubba appears. >> i get out there, and i'm doing the show. we got the lasers going and the pyro going, and everything was working really good, but i'm making all these passes back and forth. i'm doing wheelies and it is going really good. what i did was made all these passes and chewed up the water-downed roll packed surface. it is now like running in sand. i'm in fourth gear, i'm going to the ramp, the engine is -- you

know, it sounds good. i'm in a high rpm. the bike is not fishtailing, i must be good. i lift my visor up and put the bike in neutral and bow my head and say a quick little prayer. >> he puts the bike back in gear and that's all he remembers. the jump and its horrifying results are caught on camera. >> i don't remember getting closer to the ramp. i don't remember shifting the motorcycle. i don't remember getting closer and closer and positioning myself for the jump. i don't remember any of that stuff. and i certainly don't remember the helicopter ride that, you know, sent me to scripps memorial hospital, which is where i woke up a day or two later. >> bubba breaks a lot of bones, not to mention a state of the art helmet. >> that's a $1,000 kevlar indy car helmet.

very lightweight, very space edge technology material. you are not supposed to break those things. that motorcycle helmet was broken in three different places, but it saved my life. >> saves his life but barely. >> i had a major head injury. i had bleeding on the brain. i crushed my right shoulder, broke the collarbone and my shoulder blade in the back. i broke all my ribs. i punctured both lungs, ruptured spleen. i shattered my pelvis, and i broke six vertebrae in my back and one in my neck. but other than that i was all right. >> bubba has no memory of the jump, but ever the perfectionist, he critiques his performance from his hospital bed. >> i'm thinking, man, that is so obvious i don't have enough speed. it got me to thinking, did something happen, did i black out? what went wrong? as i started watching the video and analyzing it quite a bit more, you can see me mid-air working the bike, i'm trying to

move it around, so obviously, i was totally there, but the only thing i can fathom is just the simple fact that as i'm going to the ramp the bike is spinning. there's just enough speed being robbed because of the traction issue that i simply didn't make the landing ramp. i wasn't even close. >> the accident may have broken his body but certainly not his spirit or his trademark self-deprecating sense of humor. >> now that i am fortunate enough to have all the world records, i'll do this a little smarter. that's one of the things you usually get a pass on because your name is bubba from alabama, but we're having so much fun now you learn from your mistakes. i've always enjoyed about doing what i do is just the excitement of it. and for the longest time that was everything i focused on was just how exciting can i make it for everybody. >> bubba is still jumping motorcycles, but he's also a father now, something he says has slowed him down. well, somewhat.

>> before i used to always think, hey, that didn't work out, man. they are going to get quite a show and i laugh it off because i'm a good time charlie and i like to have fun, but now i'm a daddy. i have a 3-year-old little girl so now my excitement for what i do has kind of changed gears a little bit because i want to make sure that i'm going to be safe. >> but for now, bubba is still loving the ride, and he insists he is living his boyhood dream. >> the terrible thing is i'm starting to get a little bit old and it is kind of like, all right, hot shot, you have done it all. now, what are you going to do next? coming up, a cowboy finds out that when you mess with a bull you really might get the horns. >> you are playing with this sort of thing and you get burned. >> and it is said astronauts can see it from space, but can a skateboarder jump over of it? >> it was so out of the box for somebody to go jump the great wall on a skateboard. there are so many things that

motivated me to do it. >> when "caught on camera: the danger zone" continues. at planters we know how to throw a remarkable holiday party. just serve classy snacks and be a gracious host, no matter who shows up. [cricket sound] richard. didn't think you were going to make it. hey sorry about last weekend, i don't know what got into me. well forgive and forget... kind of. i don't think so! do you like nuts?

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i'm kristen welker with your top stories. families in the south are cleaning up and taking stock a day after deadly tornadoes barrelled through the region. at least 14 people were killed in the unseasonable storms. and a little cheer for those who need it most. after the holiday, rockefeller center's christmas tree outside this building will not go to waste. the 78-foot tall spruce is milled into lumber and used by habitat for humanity for homes. merry christmas. now back to "caught on camera." welcome back to "caught on camera." no matter the sport, extreme athletes thrive on pushing boundaries. they test the limits of their bodies, of their equipment, and in some cases, even of gravity. but our next video shows what

happens when one man tests the limits of mother nature. 90% of all people caught in avalanches trigger them by their own actions. watch as one skier literally skis for his life when the massive snow wall along the side of a mountain appears to crumble. for professional skier will burkes, danger is part of the job description. >> i've definitely been close to danger, like, a number of times and probably a lot of times i don't even know it, but the one that sticks out the most is the avalanche i was in at micah creek. >> on the fateful day in british columbia, will and his crew find a location and begin to ski occasionally triggering small avalanches amid the pristine snow. >> we were skiing the run, jumping when the avalanche started and we pointed and would outrun the avalanche. i mean, that was definitely

reckless in a sense, but we also, you know, had the ability and the skills to kind of outrun it. we were pushing the limits, for sure, and after, you know, a couple hours we had set off, basically, like three or four little avalanches and decided that it just wasn't worth it. >> the group moves to a new location. will watches as another skier makes a clean run nearby. >> when nothing happened, there was no instability, no avalanches, no sloughing or anything like that, i decided, okay, well, this is probably good to go. i took off and i made, like, three just beautiful turns, great snow, and i remember, i think, it was a left-hand turn and just above me like 8 or 9 feet there was a big fractured line. everything starts to move and the first thing you want to do is just turn your skis downhill and get on it and like try to power out of it.

i see a rock down below me coming up at me. i remember going right past it super fast and just going, whoa! then from there it was just this out of control tumble. when i remember tumbling over the cliffs and this huge, like, 6-foot wall, solid wall of snow just like mowed me over, super slow motion style, but it probably wasn't slow motion, but everything slows down when you are in the moment like that. and it came over my head. >> when it is over, will finds his arm and his leg are buried in the densely-packed snow. >> it was like concrete. i was like, wow, i am stuck here. like, i would have to dig myself out, but they came down and dug me out and, yeah, it was a hectic, hectic day. wow, that was the biggest thing i have ever been through in my life and it gave me chills like it is doing right now. yeah. >> amazingly, will is unharmed. >> when the avalanche happened, it was scary being in it and

then it was just like a relief to be out of it. this might not sound brilliant but a half hour later i skied another line. that night we were at the lodge and we watched the video of it and when i saw the video, that's when i really came to terms with, like, how incredibly monstrous this thing was. >> will says these days he's less likely to put himself in avalanche country. >> normally, you just don't do it period. and now that i have kids, it is like a definite not going to happen. >> we now go from man against nature to man against beast, or in this case, bull. michael floyd has been riding bulls for more than seven years. >> there's no greater adrenaline rush.

i have raced cars, raced super cross, they are all a buzz. >> but nothing he says compares to riding a bull. >> it's the ultimate sort of man against beast. i mean, you have odd of 10-15 odds. i have been one on closer to 2 ton. they just want you off. they don't actually mean any harm. >> the same goes that if you mess with the bull you get the horns. and michael gets to learn that lesson more literally than he ever expects. at a rodeo in australia, michael gets ready for a ride. >> i was fourth out. i was supposed to be fourth out and all the nicer bulls had been taken already and i ended up with this bloke. >> this bloke he's referring to is actually a 1,500-pound bull named viking. >> his horns were shaped like a viking like the old viking helmets. the owner came forward and basically said to me, this is the money bull. you take the money and the money

is on you tonight. it took me a few minutes to get on his back to gear up and he tried to get me off a couple times in the chutes. >> the ride starts and viking keeps trying to shake his rider and it doesn't take him long. >> it seems like as soon as i could get the left leg down the right one came unsettled and i knew about the third jump, the first spin to the left i just didn't get the coverage down quick enough and he got me off at the wrong side. >> 2.8 seconds after the debate opens, michael is thrown to the ground breaking a rib, but things quickly go from bad to worse. >> i saw him coming, rolled over, tried to get up to get some air and ended up getting more air than i bargained for. >> not intent to get his rider off his back, viking throws michael into the air. >> the throw in the air didn't hurt at all. he hooked me between my legs and on the other side of my ribs and he just gave me a free ride and nodded his head. wasn't much at all. >> the australian cowboy flies 12 feet up and 20 feet away.

>> my first thoughts when i was up in the air and looking down at the numbers on top of chutes, i thought some words i can't really say and then i realized he had another swat until i saw the footage myself and it hit me. >> the whole thing is over within five seconds and apart from the broken rib he suffers when he first falls off viking, michael is somehow uninjured. >> you are playing with fire. if you get burnt, you get burnt but it's something that i love doing and my family knows if anything does happen i'm at least doing something i like rather than being a road statistic or something like that. >> michael is still riding bulls and holds no ill-will toward viking. he says it is all part of the sport. >> i don't think he sort of intended to hurt me, but he was doing what comes naturally to him. he was having a play. if you go there life too scared too try something, you might as well wrap yourself up in the cut

wool. there's an old saying that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. coming up, a kayaker goes over a 127-foot waterfall. >> i'm scanning the pool at the base of the falls looking for some sign of pedro. i don't see anything. when "caught on camera: the danger zone" continues.

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available in single packs. it is not a barrel over niagara falls, but our next "danger zone" video comes close. a kayaker not only sails over a giant waterfall in nothing more than an 8-foot boat. he appears to land head first. ben stukesberry has always been drawn to extremes. >> it is just in my dna. from a very young age, i really

enjoyed pushing myself whether it was long-distance running, skiing, rollerblading, mountain biking and then the sport i've been doing for the last decade which is kayaking or extreme kayaking as we call it. >> make no mistake, extreme kayaking is no day at the beach. >> what we are doing is really on the far end of the sport. it is the most advanced, the most dangerous and arguably the most rewarding, as well. what we are doing out there is really a different sport altogether. it is extreme and it is dangerous. >> today the professional kayaker has turned his eye to the camera and shoots footage of his co-extremists. >> we go out all over the world and find some of the toughest, most dangerous, most difficult rivers to access all over the world and then we film the process of getting to the rivers and running those rivers. it is pretty exciting stuff, really. >> in 2009, they plan one run that will break records. the kayaker making the

death-defying ride is brazilian pedro olivia who ben first met in 2007. >> pedro was competing for the brazilian national team and i was filming for a company that produces kayaks here in the united states. he started telling me about the amazing waterfalls in brazil. >> i'm just going to lean back out over. >> a year after meeting, the two planned the ride that would push them close to the danger zone. >> our hope is to establish the new world record for the tallest waller fall run on the kayak. >> the previous is 108 feet and to beat this they look for the perfect falls and come upon salto bello in central brazil. >> we looked at dozens of waterfalls that were potential candidates. from the first time pedro first saw the falls he says it was the perfect falls. he knew in his mind right then that he was going to run the falls. he felt that this was one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen. he felt like this was a heaven

on earth, a paradise. salto bello means beautiful waterfall, and that's exactly what it was. >> pedro is going to make the run and ben is going to catch the whole thing on camera. >> we are right on the edge of the amazon. >> big waterfall kayaking is not to be tried at home. we are professionals. we have years of experience under our belt. we know exactly what's at stake. but in terms of just going over a waterfall in your kayak or getting your kayak on the river, it is something that everybody should try. for anyone who tries it, it will be, probably, the most exciting thing they ever do in their life. >> but the excitement of kayaking over a waterfall doesn't come without some careful planning. >> going into this drop, we had no illusions about what could go wrong. we knew that pedro could get seriously injured. we also knew that there was a possibility that he might drown. the impact might be so severe

that it could knock him out and we might not be able to get to him in time. we would literally have, at most, a couple of minutes to get pedro out of the water, so we needed to be ready for him to be unconscious and to be able to get him out of the river if he were unconscious. >> contingency plans are in place. pedro is ready to go and ben has his camera in hand. >> pedro was extremely confident right before the run. he had a feeling that everything was going to go extremely to plan. as we were waiting for pedro to come around the corner, come out of the trees paddling, i was nervous. i was anxious. i was excited. i was worried. it was definitely high anticipation, high anxiety for me. it was all i could do to stay focused on the task at hand, capturing pedro's decent on tape. >> ben does just that. the camera catches pedro as he

approaches the falls, goes over and disappears. >> i get a fairly steady handheld shot all the way to the base of the falls and then just had to wait and wait and wait. so for probably 20 seconds i'm just scanning the pool at the base of the falls waiting to see some sign of pedro, a paddle, a boat, just some color in the pool. i don't see anything. i get ready to put the camera down and repel to the base of the falls to help look for pedro and at that point another guide, another of the locals signals him sees pedro walking out from behind the falls. at that point he says in portuguese, here he comes from behind the falls. that point everyone erupts just into screaming and kind of laughter. >> yeah! >> ben says that when pedro emerges from the falls he's momentarily confused.

>> he came up in a place where he had never imagined he would be. he was in this misty, windy, torrential cavern with the sun beaming through the curtain of the falls, and for a second there, yeah, he wondered if he wasn't just straight in heaven. >> but then pedro spots something jarring. ironically, it is just now he gets his only injury of the day. >> all of a sudden he sees the green form of a snake to his left. he stumbles back like, whoa. he sees another snake to his right, slips down, cuts his leg. >> pedro narrowly survives one of the most dangerous stunts only to walk straight into a cluster of boa constrictors. >> and he says he just waited there for a second and just had to catch his bearings and be like, okay, you are okay. just get up. you have to walk out of here,

you know, you survived the falls, don't let this be the end of you here. he was able to get up after that, calm himself down a bit, avoid a couple more snakes, which ended up being lazy boa constrictors digesting a meal, somewhat harmless boa constrictors, but still, a snake is enough to scare any one of us. and yeah, he ended up from walking out behind the falls and telling us quite a tale. it was an experience that i'll remember for the rest of my life. being a part of a world record-breaking descent was something that is still with me and still makes me smile and makes me take pause from time to time. >> that said, ben and pedro are not resting on their laurels. >> there are plans in works to continue our search for bigger, more beautiful falls. the game is on. the game is on. coming up, a skateboarding legend attempts a jump over a famous site, but a fall threatens everything. >> it was the most devastating

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legend has it it can be seen from outer space. but can it be jumped on a skateboard? one world champion attempts seemingly impossible and falls. what happens after may surprise you. >> i just fell in love with the skateboard when i was maybe 3 years old. >> more than 30 years later, danny way is not only still in love with his skateboard, he's made it his profession. >> what i do for a living is i have a lot of fun and take a lot

of physical abuse at the same time skateboarding professionally. i've been doing it for 20 years. i love the fact that the skateboard has such an endless amount of potential for creativity. >> so is the potential for injury. >> it's not as glamorous as it looks. i do get hurt a lot, which is a big part of what i do. >> i have four acl reconstructions on my left knee alone. elbow, ankle shoulder, i have an unstable vertebrae and serious damage and serious neck injury and paralysis in my arms. >> along with serious injuries, danny has racked up multiple records and firsts in skateboarding. >> the world record jumps i've achieved and records i set have been not so much about the record itself versus the opportunity to push skateboarding to a certain point. my whole deal is trying to one-up the things i've done in the past. >> in 2005, he plans a jump unlike anything he's ever attempted before. >> i flew to china on some business. i was looking at the magazine and saw a picture of the great wall of china.

we just happened to fly over it at the same time, i was like, wow, that would be pretty intriguing to jump the great wall. >> the great wall of china, which goes back to the 5th century, b.c. stretches more than 4,000 miles and stands about 25 feet high and 30 feet wide. >> it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. it was so out of the box for somebody to go jump the great wall on a skateboard. so many things motivated me to do this. the biggest challenge was, can i get permission to do it? >> danny manages to get permission and starts building the ramp he needs to make the jump. >> we had to import a lot of materials they didn't typically have that we make skateboards out of. not only that, i had to bring my u.s., my construction crew down there to work with the chinese to make sure this thing was sound and dimensions were translating correctly from --you know, standard to metric.

when i actually got there and saw this thing getting constructed, i felt like i already accomplished my goal, to have a westerner come to china, californian jumping the great wall in a country like china. i never thought in a million years that would happen. >> but big projects can sometimes mean big problems. >> some of the things did come out a little wrong, like the design of the ramp was not perfect. there was a couple flaws in it which i found out about the hard way. >> the day before the big jump, danny checks out the setup. >> i went up there and looked at it. everything looked pretty good to go. >> it may look good to go, but when he makes a test run, danny realizes something was wrong. >> i knew right away i was going to come up short. i catapulted off the end of the ramp and tumbled down the landing ramp and broke my reign l. i was like, this is not happening. this is surreal. this didn't just happen. my ankle is fine, i could not accept i broke my ankle, the

most devastating day ever the day before this is to happen. no way this is over all this work. this is not going to happen. >> danny goes back to the hotel determined that the next day, he will make the jump. >> i would never have thrown the towel in on it. i just didn't know if i was physically going to be able to accomplish it. i mentally was there. i physically would do whatever it took to get over the wall. i mentally didn't know if my ankle would give out. i'm ready to go. is this thing going to last, i don't know. >> the next day, danny and his broken ankle make it to the top of the ramp, determined to go through with the jump. >> it was such a hot day, really hot day and humid, all the gear that i have on, and then 10 flights of stairs stressing about my ankle and hurting every step i take, as much as i wanted to enjoy the moment, i just wanted to be on the other side of the challenge and finished and taking my gear off and be like, thank god it's over with and relax and not feel that

pressure or the pain. >> he gets ready to make the jump. >> it was a leap of faith, pretty much, yes. definitely a leap of faith. >> a leap of faith, maybe. a dangerous jump, definitely. he flies down the ramp and misses the landing. but danny takes the old saying to heart. if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, no matter what. >> i went back up there, 10 stories to get to the top of that thing. a fractured ankle in the hot humidity, construction stairwell all the way to the top of this thing. i had to hike that thing. >> he gets into position to make another attempt. and lands successfully. >> then i made it perfect. i went back and did it like five times in a row. thank god. i don't know how it worked out but it did.

i made it over the wall, my ankle's broken. each time i went up there, please, just god, make this happen, get me out of here in one piece. i don't want to end up in the hospital in china, i want to get home. please just get me home safely. i prayed every time i went up there. >> eventually, he stops jumping the wall, giving his body a much needed rest. >> it was one of the top, as far as dangerous things i've done by a long shot. >> the great wall of china jump put danny squarely in the danger zone. but for him, it's all for the greater good of the sport. >> i've always had so much of a respect for skateboarding and what it's done for my life that i've always contributed to the community of skateboarding, give them something they can be proud of, too. >> there you go, eight extreme athletes whose death defying feats put them squarely in the danger zone. amazingly, they all lived to tell the tale. if you have a video, you'd like to send us to, send it to our website

caughtoncamera@msnbc.com. i'm contessa brewer. that's it for this edition of "caught on camera." they do battle with the armed and dangerous. >> pursuits are bad. shootings are bad. shooting pursuits, really, really bad. >> handle the most unexpected predicaments. >> it's a hard thing to watch for a lot of people. >> and react quickly when routine situations suddenly turn perilous. >> first mental thing is that i'm a slaughtered lamb. >> police officers put their lives on the line every day. and in their arsenal, they have a silent witness that can speak volumes. >> put the gun down, man! >> in this hour, suspenseful stories seen through the unblin