A social media influencer says he nearly drowned after getting trapped under ice while filming a stunt for his TikTok account — and then did it again.
Jason Clark — who has more than 403,000 followers as @jasontodolist on the video-sharing app — posted a harrowing clip Monday of himself swimming beneath a sheet of ice and not being able to find a way out.
“Never been this close to dying,” Clark wrote, sharing the clip on Instagram, where more than 32,000 people follow him.
Clark explained his goal was to swim in the frozen body of water from point-to-point while a sidekick filmed him from above — but, as the video shows, he struggled to retrace his strokes.
“I didn’t think my eyeballs would freeze so quick,” he wrote.
The clip shows Clark attempting to find the opening in the ice that he’d lowered himself into but, “the surface of the water where the hole was didn’t look any different than the bottom of the ice,” he wrote.
“When I flipped around and felt solid ice I thought I was at the hole,” he continued.
When he realized he wasn’t at the exit, Clark tried to follow his trail back, but “dust” that he’d kicked up on his way had drifted, leading him even further astray.
“I then tried to break the ice with my back,” he wrote. “I don’t know what made me turn around one last time.”
Clark wrote he was “so short on breath” that he couldn’t see anything.
“I had accepted that was it and I wasn’t going to make it,” he wrote.
Finally, he swung his hand up and broke through the ice.
“I then got a ton of energy to stand up,” he said. “It took two to three breaths to regain my vision after resurfacing.”
The person filming the video thought Clark was just goofing off and didn’t realize how serious the situation was, he said.
The clip caught the attention of more than 200,000 people on Instagram, including Will Smith, who reposted it with the caption: “#AwwHellNaw.”
“I do not like this,” Jennifer Garner commented.
Despite the near-death experience, Clark attempted the risky feat again — but made sure the exit hole was “comically big” so he could find it.
“Second attempt went a little better,” he wrote on Instagram. “You have to try it twice!”