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Passenger Who Jumped 11 Stories Off Cruise Ship Hopes He Doesn't Inspire Others

Royal Caribbean has banned Nick Naydev for life for the viral stunt.

A man who was banned from Royal Caribbean Cruises after jumping into the ocean from his 11th-floor balcony hopes his actions don’t inspire others.

Last week, 27-year-old Nick Naydev of Vancouver, Washington, posted a video on Instagram showing him taking one small leap for a man and one giant jump of stupidity. He plummeted 100 feet into shark-infested waters.

Amazingly, he wasn’t seriously injured but said he could “barely walk” for three days afterward, according to The Washington Post.

The main damage was financial: Naydev and his friends were kicked off the cruise in the Bahamas, and he had to shell out $200 for a plane ticket home from Nassau, the Post said.

The 10-second stunt led the cruise line to ban Naydev and his friends for life, according to a statement Royal Caribbean gave to “Inside Edition”:

“This was stupid and reckless behavior, and he and his companions have been banned from ever sailing with us again. We are exploring legal action.”

Naydev told “Inside Edition” that he didn’t really think about the risks before taking that leap of logic.

“Nothing was really going through my mind. I’m like, ‘I gotta do this,’ and just two seconds later, I just jumped and didn’t really think it through,” he admitted.

Not surprisingly, alcohol may have been involved.

“The previous night we were drinking quite a bit, so I was still feeling the effects of the alcohol,” he added.

Now, a week later, Naydev worries that his reckless jump may inspire copycats.

“I hope I don’t inspire anybody to do this because it is very dangerous,” he said. “I mean, don’t think this is a joke.”

However, the man who recorded Naydev’s jump told Yahoo! that he’s disappointed in how Royal Caribbean handled the incident, though he seems not to get the point.

“He’s jumped from those kind of heights before, and we didn’t really care about the consequences with the cruise company,” he explained. “We just wanted to get a video of it and make it go viral.”

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