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    Every now and then on the show it becomes necessary to come up with a completely ridiculous idea in order to keep everybody entertained. "Air Ram" was the name of this stunt and it was a joke to me until I showed up for my training. The idea for this senseless act was to get catapulted off of the Venice Beach pier only a few feet away from a gigantic explosion. I would hit an air ram that would launch me over the railing and away from the bomb. I had never even heard of an air ram and did not realize how complex this piece of equipment was. The ram was basically a piston loaded with about 1200 psi of compressed air that would fire the second that anything touched it. It was very important that I learn how to hit the air ram precisely or else it could easily break my leg. I spent about 3 hours hitting a small ram and landing in pads. The key was to be aggressive and never hesitate right before hitting it. This thing had mass amounts of power with the capability of launching somebody 50 feet through the air. But I wasn't planning on going that big. The guy training me told me of stuntmen who had died from hitting powerful rams just slightly off timing. Then there was some dude that went up to a ram that he didn't know was active and took it in the chin. Not smart. At one point in my training it started to rain, so we had to move under a roof. I didn't realize how dangerous this was. One time I hit the ram vertical and almost made a hole in the ceiling with my head. On the day of the stunt, they brought out a bigger ram. This thing was bitchin. Probably a $10,000 piece of equipment. I was very intimidated by it. The entire setup was very intimidating with a 45 foot pier and gigantic gas bombs all around the ram. The important thing was to just hit the ram precisely and then let gravity take over. I had to trust that the explosives experts wouldn't do anything stupid either. It was a long drop down and I figured that I might have a nasty landing in the water. I was right about that. When the stunt was ready to happen, I got coated in nasty, cold fire gel. It's like slathering refrigerated Crisco all over your bare skin. It sucks. There was a long run-up to the ram across the entire pier. I had to time my last few footsteps precisely. I hit the ram just right but had my body tilted just slightly to one side. I barely cleared the fireball and then started rolling onto my side during the fall. I knew it was going to hurt. I spanked the water and saw stars. My left ear was ringing and bloody. The salty water didn't help either. I could hear the crowd cheering up on the pier so I figured it must have looked pretty cool. I passed on the boat ride and took a mellow swim in to shore.