I Survived 7 Days With Winter "Death Divers"

3...2...1...Send it! Last summer I got roped into competing against the best cliff jumpers in the world. Some of which were a group of Norwegians that grew up doing a very different kind of diving. I knew they were crazy, but I didn't know how crazy until recently when I got a call. Tanner! Come to Norway! What? Like this summer? Right now! The water is perfect! But it's freaking freezing there, no way! Haven't you always wanted to see the Northern Lights? Uh...yeah? Well, they only come out in the wintertime. Is that right? And so began the most absurd adventure that I will probably ever go on. Let's go on an adventure! Despite the 24 hour travel time, when I told my family about the possibility of experiencing the aurora, something we've all dreamed of for years, they quickly decided to join me. We might see the Northern Lights! If we don't, I'm literally committing a crime. Luckily, I think the streets will remain safe from my sister, because on our flight over the Atlantic, not only did we see these Northern Lights, but we actually saw THE Northern Lights! Well, not really. My camera did, but this is what we actually saw. We got the sneak peek. It'd been a full day without sleep and only eating terrible airport food, What the f*** is that, mate? but at last, we were descending on our final flight, and that's when I realized just what I'd gotten myself into. Yet my family didn't seem worried at all. What have we done? We left decent weather for this. I probably would have been smart to change. I'm realizing now. The Norwegians were laughing at me! Rightfully so! The next morning, I had a farewell breakfast with the fam, which I hoped wouldn't be a final farewell, before leaving to meet up with the crazy cliffjumpers that I'd be joining for the next several days. Now, you may think I'm being dramatic, saying that I'm risking my life by joining them, but a 30-foot cliff in the warm state of Texas is a walk in the park compared to what they normally do. If you didn't know, this appropriately titled style of diving is called death diving. And you're probably wondering, who in their right mind would ever want to intentionally land on their face? But it's actually a very popular sport here in Europe. So much so, that all of the guys coach large groups of kids every week at their local pools. That, along with being broadcasted by various news stations and sports channels, has led them to become somewhat of local celebrities. And rather than just filming from the sidelines like a typical documentary, I'm literally about to be diving into their world. Uh, as I'll ever be. Haha, that's a good one. Despite the guys giving me crap about it, we stopped to get me a wetsuit and some water shoes before heading to the first spot. Here we go. Oh man, if I go and I back out, now that I put this wetsuit on, I'm gonna be mega, mega. We're not gonna mention it at all. Yeah. Not at all. So I'm mostly worried about the temperature of the water, but the guys seem to be more concerned about the takeoff. If it's icy like this, it's a dangerous spot. Everything seems to be ice underneath. Yep. Alright, 30 minute hike in the snow begins now. I'm already freezing. It is negative 2. And we're just gonna go hop in the ocean real quick. These guys are just having a good time, making jokes. I'm freaking out. The spot was really hard to find today. We actually made a wrong turn probably four or five times. It's slippery here, so be careful, okay? Whoa, are you good, bro? We made it to the spot, but where they're jumping is up there. We don't know how we're gonna get up there. It's all icy. I don't think this spot is actually doable if the takeoff is full of ice. So I'll see if I can come from the top and maybe throw down a rope or something. Anders managed to secure a rope, making the treacherous climb safe-ish. But there was still the problem of the icy takeoff. We're hoping whoever finds our cameras can edit something good together and we'll leave a note with our passwords to our channel. I was clearly uneasy about going through with this, but they insisted the jump was doable and started getting ready. We got the youngest going first. Skipped school to be here. I can't do this! Oh, my God. You good? Let's go. Since Christopher's jump went well and he was feeling great, Simon climbed up to go next. I'm debating sofa or death dive. Sofa or death dive. What do you say, Tanner? Sofa! You know it's 17-meter sofa. It's kind of dangerous. You know that, right? What's a sofa, you ask? Well, I'll just let him show you. Ready? I need to go into my inner... Come on! Are we ready to rock? Come on! Four, three, two, one! Sofa! Is he good? You good? He's not talking. You good? Yeah! What's up? Simon is crazy. He's always crazy. How's your cheeks? I don't know. He's like, I can't feel them. And the last pro, with no hesitation at all, was Anders. That felt good! You're crazy! How are you so relaxed right now? It's all about the breathing. Focus on breathing and stay calm. You're crazy. I am very nervous right now. I usually love cliff jumping, but I've never done anything like this. I feel like I'm the most normal guy to ever try to do crazy things. Like, I'm so nervous. They're all cheering and all this, and I'm like, yeah. But without any more Norwegians to let me keep procrastinating, my time had finally come. Grab the brush. Oh, that's thorns. We got you. Welcome to Norway. I'm feeling welcomed. Oh my God, it's so high up. Holy... How come the edge broke? Tanner is actually going next, and I think he's really nervous. I am very close to backing out. I'm not sure. Because it's very slippery, I feel this is too dangerous for me. As you can probably tell, this is the most terrified I have ever been for any stunt. I had to trust that this tiny little brush pile would give me the grip I needed to not slip. If Simon survived this, you're definitely surviving. We all believe in you. I don't believe in myself. The feeling you will have when you're back in land is the best one ever. I, like, genuinely believe you got this. I stood on the edge looking down at the water for another five minutes until eventually I made my decision. All right, you ready? Ladies and gentlemen... Just kidding. I wish. You got this, bro. In five... Hold on, let's start from ten, maybe. Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Stand! Yeah, buddy! USA! Let's go! Yes, buddy! Holy... That is insane! Holy cow! Yeah, brother! You actually did it, man. Congratulations! That might be my highest cliff jump. That was insane! Sorry I sat up there so long. We've been there, man. We've been there. My fingers and feet... I can't feel them. Well, it wasn't a depth dive, and I did have a wetsuit on, but I still can't believe I actually did it. Moreover, I can't believe all of the guys walked away completely unscathed considering their landings. Especially Simon's. How could anyone, let alone a 46-year-old man, take this much impact without consequence? It seemed too good to be true, and as it turned out, it was. Are you good? What's happening? No. Why are you walking like this? This is probably my worst landing ever. I don't know what happened, but something happened. We were a little bit worried there for a couple of... We still are. Yes, we are. We're still all worried. From that high with it being that cold, you could seriously break your back. I know. Landing on your butt. I mean, dude, I just hope that you're going to be alright. What's crazy is he's been completely fine after hundreds of the same landing from similar heights, including his world record of 79 feet he did just last year. But after what was essentially a routine jump, here he was barely able to walk. We just had Simon checked out by a physical therapist, and now we're on our way to the hospital. Hoping the best for him. I feel so bad. Right in there. You good? Yeah. Ta-ta, Simon. Before we check in on Simon, I want to take a minute to talk about the sponsor of this video, Surfshark VPN. Surfshark's virtual private network keeps your online identity safe by encrypting all the information sent between your device and the internet. This keeps your personal data protected from big companies and cyber criminals. Also, a VPN swaps the real location of your device with a new one, also known as changing your IP address. Masking your IP address is essential to becoming fully private online. This is especially useful for when you're on free public Wi-Fi, which can be a goldmine for hackers. And Surfshark liberates your internet by unblocking blocked websites and bypassing geo-restrictions. This way, you can virtually travel to any country around the globe. And since Surfshark has over 3,200 servers in over 100 countries, you can access and unblock content libraries and streaming services from other countries, like the entire Netflix libraries. So if you're traveling like I am right now, you can switch your location back to your home so you don't miss out on any of your favorite shows. And right now, if you use the code Tanner, you can get 83% off plus three extra months free. Surfshark also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there's no risk in giving it a try. So to sign up today, just click the link at the top of the description. Alright, let's get back to the video. I called Seaman the next day to see how he was doing, and to my surprise... Back one day. Look at him, fresh out of the wheelchair. He's jumping around with joy. What happened? You just needed to sleep it off? Yeah. You might even be jumping again on this trip. I'll break Seaman's... You can't do it. You can't. The hospital scans didn't show any sign of injury, so despite still being in pain, Seaman was able to join for day two. We're about to check out a Norwegian diving center. I am so excited. An enjoyable day. Let's go. This is crazy. This is my local pool, and you're going to see some sick young death divers today. They will take over the throne. For sure. I was very excited to learn more about death diving and get some practice, but they'd left out one small detail. Today was not a practice session. It was a death diving show, and I was unknowingly the opening act. They convinced the owners to open up the small hatches on the roof, which I would jump through to land in the pool. A stunt that has only been done by Emil, Anders, and Seaman. I touched it a little bit. I did it, yeah. You touched the walls? Yeah, a little bit. Seaman, he was like... Oh, no. Wait, wait, wait. You're not jumping through the window? No. I survived twice. I don't need to try it again. The biggest thing is that we have to avoid these pipes on the way down, and it's already really tight. 36. You ready? They're counting down, down there. 3, 2, 1. Anders was not joking. These kids absolutely blew my mind and definitely put my death dives to shame. So, in an attempt to uphold my reputation, I had no choice but to bust out some of the tricks I was used to. Oh, bro. My eyeballs hurt so bad. I should have went into a death dive. Yeah, that would be better. That probably would have been better. He thought he was a good flipper. Landing on the beach is for... One more. One more? Yeah, triple. No way. Yeah, if the kids triple, you triple. Oh, absolutely. Oh, man. Almost. Almost. I still took it to the stomach. I think I'm done. I tried my best. You tried. To my surprise, I think my reputation with the Norwegians may have even improved after my painful flops. I guess I just keep forgetting they do things differently here. I'm not dead yet. It just got out of the hospital yesterday. After leaving the diving center, I spent the rest of the evening getting to see what a foreign trampoline park was like. And the answer was, not as awesome as mine. Check out theflippad.net for business hours and private bookings at the ultimate trampoline park. All right, let's get back on track. Well, we're going to freeze tomorrow. Jeez. Looks like good swimming weather to me. Are you ready? Yeah. This is what we live for. This is why we were born. We're going up north to Elvedrum. Elvedrum. Elvedrum. Elvedrum. It's going to be colder, it's going to be tougher, and I've done the hike before. I'm not looking forward to this. The reason we had to get up so early was to drive three hours north in order to meet up with this man. His name is Ken, a self-proclaimed modern Viking who swims in the ice daily, deadlifts 640 pounds, and, of course, deaf dives. He's the closest to a Viking you will ever flip the days off. He'll go out in the wilderness and sleep there. Well, this weather tells it all. Hiking in this is going to be unreal. I think we're almost there. Oh, s***. You guys are so stupid. After that very warm welcome, we started getting ready for today's objective, jump a giant frozen waterfall. Look at how deep this snow is. Oh, my God. And we're doing, like, a one-hour hike, and we don't even know if it's possible to jump it. Let's hunt some cliffs. Yo, the Viking cliffs as well. Eventually, the trail came to an end, and from here, it was going to be rough, especially for whoever was in the front. It's safe to say the fun was officially over. Well, for the most part. The nature's lollipop. I've only seen something like this in a movie. And now we're going swimming as well. We are here at the cliff. It doesn't look good at all. We may have just walked all this way for nothing. Sure enough, after all of our time and effort, we had run into a major issue. It's been so cold here that the waterfall and river beneath it were almost completely frozen. But there was still a hole, so we weren't giving up yet. I see water. I have hope. I have access. What more do I need in life? Oh, I'm buried. This cliff was even higher than the first one we jumped, so the hole was going to have to be made much bigger. If you're going through the ice now, and underneath, you're dead. The closer we get to the edge, the more dangerous it becomes. We are all about safety, so this is our safety rope. The Viking chipped away at the ice, seemingly making good progress, until... This is not going to work, because we hit the ice underneath. There's two layers of ice. You see, if I turn the axe sideways now and try to pull it up, it's stuck. So, plan C. Plan C. Since we couldn't break the ice, and because getting swept under it after landing didn't sound the most fun, we quickly hiked out of the forest to make it to another spot before sundown. Let's hope a train doesn't come. It looks all so frozen, right? God, no. You're a Viking, right? You'll jump it. Headbutt it. Well, that sucks. There's a train coming. Yikes. Okay, now we're running away from a train. And we're off. Holy crap. That thing's going fast! It's a good thing the water was frozen, or that could have been really bad. Two attempts and two failures later, we were running out of options, and more importantly, daylight. But the Viking had one more idea. We're going to ride straight into glory. The goal here is to cut off a slab of ice and then ride it down the river. Do flips on it. Oh, and nobody brought towels, so... Welcome to Norway. I've already been here a while. It's not getting better. Viking's almost got us ready for a ride. Oh, here we go. It's off. Bye, see you later. We're on an iceberg. It is so cold. Bye, guys. Let's do it. I don't want to go through the ice. Oh, my God. Follow me on the ice. It's all sinking. I'm going to this one. I'm sorry, boys. No, you're too big. You're going to sink us both. You killed us both. Oh, God. I hate you. So much worse without the wetsuit. You guys are crazy. Am I officially one of you guys? It wasn't off a cliff, but... I'm never coming back here. Ever. I couldn't tell if that was a yes or a no, but after everything that happened today, there are two things I am certain of. One, if modern Vikings are a thing, Ken is definitely one of them. And two, I will never trust one again. How do you think Tanner's doing? Who? I had jumped off a massive cliff, did a couple depth dives, and swam without a wetsuit, but there was still one thing keeping me from gaining the full respect of the Norwegians, combining all of those things. And for that, the guys would be taking me to their favorite jumping spot. My local diving tower. This is where I learned depth diving. That is so sick. The fact that this just exists is so crazy to me. It's open to the public. Anyone can just go here and jump. At what height does depth diving start? It starts at 10 meters, my man. Shut up. Look at how high that is. That's over twice the highest one I've ever done. The height of an Olympic high dive in Norway in January. Well, let's climb up and look at it. Dude, it shakes. It's so shaky. That was a long climb. Oh no. The only way I'm doing it is if someone's first and down there. In the water? I'll go right after them. I can be in the water, but I can't be in the water like if you're hesitating. I'm out of there. Channel my Viking spirit. Boom. No backing out now. Time to get serious. Here we go. Leave me be. I'm shirtless, ain't I? He's going, which means I'm about to have to go. Oh my God, this is insane. Proper Norwegian, man. Let's get it. Just go straight after. I'm going to. You ready? Here we go. Let's get it. 3, 2, 1 more look. I'll get caught. Here we go. I'm freezing my ass off here. I'm coming. 2, 1. Count for me. Count for me, Anders. 3, 2, 1. Let's get to the stairs. Let's get warm. Congratulations. Your first 10 meter death dive. Holy crap. I do have a gift for you. What is this? This is my hat. I really made it. Now you're one of us. Well, my jump didn't exactly exude confidence, especially compared to the other guys, but you know what? I don't even care. I was now able to sleep soundly, knowing that I had conquered the most extreme form of cliff jumping. Tanner, Tanner, Tanner. You call that extreme? You fell off that platform like a little girl. You didn't even jump, man. Now, wake the hell up and do better! So we've just hiked to this frozen lake, built a shelter, and now we're beginning to cut the hole in the ice. This is where we have to land. That's where we're jumping from. As long as you don't slip off the platform, you should be good. To be able to jump from a tower this tall relatively safely, we were going to have to make a pretty good sized hole, which meant moving tons of snow out of the way, getting soaked while cutting the ice, and finally, pushing each section underneath. My first thought when we got here was, this won't take long. It's easy. You just cut a hole. But as the hours passed and the roadblocks began to occur, it became increasingly obvious that this was probably not going to work. We've been cutting the ice for like four hours now, and the main problem is that every time we cut up a bit of ice, the water floods over. That makes the chainsaw choke up, and I... Check this out. For today, we are calling this a failed mission. And I am so wet at my feet. Your feet. It was a bummer to leave, knowing that the reason we couldn't finish it was out of our control, but on the other hand, maybe it was for the best. I knew what we were doing had risks, but when one of the guys told me that a friend of theirs was paralyzed after miscalculating an ice hole jump just last year, my stomach sank. Abandoning this idea seemed completely fine now, and I was just happy to be meeting back up with my family in one piece. Getting a break from the craziness to try and find the northern lights sounded exactly like what I needed. Turns out, to get to where the northern lights can be visible, we had to go north. After a two hour flight to the Arctic Circle, we got picked up by a man named Tomas, the owner of the place we would be staying, called North Experience Base Camp. I sought out this specific location for one main reason. They have the coolest hotel rooms ever. Glass igloos. Here is one igloo. This is sick. So cozy, it's like a little RV. This is so freaking cool. Literally something I've dreamed about for probably a decade or longer. And I'm here. This is surreal. The camp also had a hot tub, saunas, and even a giant teepee you can have cookouts in. After dropping off our luggage, we were off to see what else the North Experience had to offer. And the first spot did not disappoint. Magic ice bath. Oh wow. It is so cool. Don't worry, even Taylor's legal now. Our second activity was also a first for the whole family. Yeah, it's minus 15 degrees right now. Oh, and we're going to go kayaking. On land. I think I'm ready for the X Games. That was sick. And as if that wasn't enough, Tomas took us on a tour of an ice hotel before returning to camp for dinner. What's for dinner, you ask? Well, actually, you're looking at it. Guess what we're doing. We're eating a reindeer. I feel sad. I wonder if they taste good. Let's find out. Tastes like chicken. Tastes like pork. Do you think this is comet or vixen? We're definitely going on Santa's naughty list. So it's almost midnight on our first night here at base camp, and I've got my alarm set for an hour from now when apparently the skies are supposed to clear up a bit. And maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to see some northern lights. So I'm going to cross my fingers, shut my eyelids, and see what happens when my alarm goes off. Goodnight. Yeah? Wait, you can see them right now? Oh, wow, yeah, I can see that up there. That's pretty sick. That's so cool. I figured they'd be a little bit more vibrant. A little bit underwhelming in person, but still sick. This is the moment I realized that all of the breathtaking photos that made me want to see the lights in the first place must have all just been long exposures or heavily edited. Yeah, I could see a little something, but it wasn't really like anything I'd hoped it'd be. Until five minutes later. They are going crazy right in this pink in the sky. They're dancing. This is insane. Look at that. Oh my god. Look at that over the mountain. Oh my god. This is the craziest thing I've ever seen, bro. Oh my god, look at that. You can see it on my phone. They're dancing everywhere. Holy crap. First night here. You know what's good when our tour guide gets excited? I'm extremely happy. That if we don't see the lights, I'll feel like... Clouds eventually rolled in and would block our view of the sky for the remainder of our time up north. But the hour or so that we got to spend together experiencing what was undoubtedly the highlight of any family trip we've had made it impossible to feel ungrateful. All I've got to say is if you're looking for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, I couldn't recommend the North Experience more. For my last full day in Norway, I originally planned to do some sightseeing and just soak in some of the normal things the country had to offer. But turns out, when nature ruins the plan of a Norwegian, they don't give up very easily. My chainsaw kept on drowning, so today, I brought two. The guys had returned to the lake and spent the entire day I was gone attempting to finish the mission we had started. Which of course meant that I would be reluctantly returning to the terrifying ice hole. What have you drug me into? That's good. Like yesterday, the Iceman Swim documentary. Yeah. Yeah, that's too sh**. We're doing all of this just to torture ourselves. The scary thing is that some of this ice is nearly invisible. Yeah, hopefully we got all of those out. Currently walking up to the platform for the first time, so I don't even know if I'm gonna jump. I wanna do a death dive but it's even taller than the tower I was scared to jump off of. Oh dear God. Dear God. You probably have 15 feet of gap to clear before you're at the ledge of the ice. Here comes the real anxiety. So today, we are finally jumping this bad boy. I'm so scared right now. I'm jumping this no matter what. The mental fear of doing the gap is so hard to deal with. But if I land in the water, even if it's not the best landing, I'll survive. The hole was now cleared, the platform was de-iced, so there was only one thing left to do. We gotta make it farther than the ice block. Yeah! One! Woo! Yeah! Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the first American to do the ice hole in Norway. I'm freaking out, bro. This is insane. Send it! Yeah! Woohoo! Woo! Yeah! Yeah! Holy f***ing scariest thing I've ever done in my life. He lives another day. Let's go. Oh my god. Tanner, my boy! You did it! I knew you had it in you. The North is proud! Yes! Alright, see you around, my boy. At last, my time freezing my butt off had come to an end. As grueling as it was, and as idiotic as it probably seemed to most people, I've come to understand why the guys enjoyed doing this. It's the best feeling. After is the best feeling. Yeah, after is the best feeling. Oh my god! In the meantime, I'll still be chasing other thrills and continuing what has basically become a series where I try not to die every video. In fact, I've already began training for the next adventure that you're not going to want to miss. We also have new merch in our shop, so if you want to support the channel, check out tbrunger.com. And with that said, thanks so much for watching, and don't forget to follow all the crazy jumpers who helped make this video possible. Alright, I'll see you in the next one. Peace!